First Contact: The Relay 314 Incident
by CoNn3rB
Summary: "Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." Arthur C Clarke. Humanity is about to come face to face with fear in a galaxy full of life but in the dark of the cosmos lies the true face of death itself. (The Sequel is now on the way)
1. Lies

**The Relay 314 Incident**

Chapter 1: Lies

Men rise. Men fall. That is the truth of life, you can't go one minute without a reminder of your mortality. There are some who choose to fight it but this leads them down a path none should walk. There are some who accept it but this leads them down a path of despair.

The questions that are always asked in their last moments are always "Was it worth it?" or "Could I have done this differently?" these questions flowed through Elias's mind as the shot ripped through his chest, breaking his sternum open like it was made of glass, tearing his heart and lungs like they were soft paper and snipping his spine like it was a frayed piece of string. His body died in those moments but his mind lived on for a few precious seconds as the events of the past week flooded his mind, bringing with them a strong sense of regret.

"Elias?" the voice was muffled "Wake up you lazy git!" Elias felt a whack on the side of his arm.

"What?" he asked, his voice muffled by the soft, soft pillow.

"We're on." said Richard putting on his vest. Elias looked up to get his bearings, the room wobbled as his eyes adjusted to the artificial light of the ship, they produced no sound but he could feel the hum of the energy flow through them which gave the ship a sterile feel.

"How far out?" Elias asked as he tried to un-bury his head from his pillow, he was unsuccessful.

"We have two hours to before we get there and ten minutes to scan from orbit" Richard answered while buckling his boots, the clipping sound was annoying.

"Ten minute scan? Is this just a pass over?" a 'pass over' was a military term which basically meant to stop at a planet, scan for anything obvious and leave as quickly as possible. This only gives you the basic data such as size, density and atmosphere, while this did not yield important information such as metals but an in-depth scans took time and time costs fuel so the Alliance left that to the mining colonies to figure out.

"This _is_ a fast drop, two teams of three. First drop will be a scout team consisting of Sergeant Merhadee and Corporals Blake and Tammy. The second team will be dropped in forty-five minutes after initial deployment, which consists of me, you and led up by Sergeant Roman." Elias had come dangerously close to falling back to sleep again but managed to lazily roll out of his bunk and onto his feet.

"Why two teams?" Elias asked as he tried to adjust his ID discs that had gotten tangled while he slept, the N4 symbol featured predominately on the back. His tags read; Elias John Everest with the serial number 174-45-8926, his blood type which was O RHD Negative and his religion which was Atheist. In reality Elias didn't know what he believed so he decided that he believed in nothing.

"We received a distress signal about two hours ago and were going to go see what the fuss is about."

The ships walls were a depressing sight, nothing but grey steel for miles in any direction broken up by the occasional orange safety warning. Elias missed the green of Sepulchre Prime, he missed his home. Sure there were many green planets in the Galaxy, and Elias had seen over a dozen in his 3 years of service, but none had that orange tinge in the air from the type K, Sub-giant sun that's so close to the planet you could almost touch it, none of them had that smell of copper on the wind from the metal rich soil and most notably none of them has his dad there. What Elias wouldn't give to go home for just a moment and hug his dad.

"What was in the signal?" asked Elias folding up his bunk and saying goodbye to his soft, soft pillow and putting thoughts of home out of his mind with a violent shake.

"You'll be briefed when we get to the bridge." answered Sergeant Roman as he stepped over casually. "Just know that the Major will be there so it must be something big. So get dressed we have ten minutes to get to the bridge and I would like to avoid any unpleasantness." Sergeant Roman headed of towards the bulkhead door but stopped and turned around as he reached it. "And guys?" Elias and Richard lifted their heads to face him. "We'll be suiting up so wear some comfortable pants." and on that note he left with a grin on his face.

"Does he really think he's funny?" asked Richard shaking his head slowly.

"Come on, let's go before tries again." joked Elias as he made his way to the bulkhead only to turn back because he forgot his left boot.

"Twat..." chuckled Richard who was waiting at the bulkhead for Elias.

They arrived at the bridge six minutes later dressed in their under shirts and trousers, Roman was waiting next to the door for them, leaning on it with crossed arms. "You ready?" he asked raising his head from the floor. You could see the dust mark where he was kicking the floor while he was waiting, Roman wasn't exactly a patient man so if you were late he would let you know and he wouldn't be quiet about it.

"Wouldn't be here otherwise." answered Richard with a cocky smile to which Roman replied with a frown.

"Let's go then." Roman used his shoulders to push himself off the wall and he entered the bridge followed by Richard and Elias walking with their backs straight and shoulders level like they had been taught.

The bridge was practically empty at this time of artificial night. Only the pilots, navigators and the Major were there. They approached the Major who was stood around the holo-table going through files on his PDA. "Major Harrow." stated Roman as they stood to attention and saluted.

Major Harrow looked up from his PDA with a blank look on his face, almost like he wasn't actually there. "At ease." he grumbled, obviously tired.

Major Harrow wasn't an old man but wasn't young either, he was promoted through valour rather than experience, you could see in his cold blue eyes that he had seen more than one man should in one lifetime. A man of his rank should be aboard a warship instead of an exploration frigate, he must have been put here because didn't want to fight any more or he angered the wrong person, either way, this type of position wasn't suitable for a man of his rank.

His hair was brown or black, you couldn't tell because he was practically bald and the scar on his eye was a more drawing feature. A ship crashed a few hundred meters near where his squad was stationed back when the governments of earth still fought each other, and some debris was flung into his face scaring him from the right side of his nose to the left side of his eye, the scar wasn't overtly grotesque but it was noticeable.

"We just have to wait for the second…." the other group entered the bridge at a brisk walking pace, fully aware of the fact that they were late.

"What took you so long?" asked Roman, aggressively.

"Blake over here couldn't find his bloody boot." answered Tammy shoving him through the door.

"I'm guessing he found it?" joked Richard donning his trademark grin that made him look like the Joker.

"Only after mine found his arse." answered Merhadee with a chuckle, Merhadee was a Sergeant like Roman but she wasn't stuck up about it, a fair and firm lady, she was respected by her peers and her superiors alike. Something Roman could only dream of. "Major Harrow." stated Merhadee with a salute changing her light tone for a serious one.

"At ease." He commanded annoyed at the fact that he has to keep saying it. "Round the table." ordered the Major disposing with the pleasantries. They all waltzed over to a round table that appears to be made of glass with a camera in the centre that lit up on approach. "Mission log 13, Major Harrow reporting a search and possible rescue op on the..." Harrow checks the date on his PDA. "...21st of March 2157. The responding units are: Alright, introduce your soldiers Roman." commanded Major Harrow. The introduction was for the mission dossier which had to be recorded before every mission, protocols like this were tiring and arduous but necessary when it came to the cost of military funds.

Roman cleared his throat. "Major." he acknowledges with a nod. "These are Corporals Alex Richard and Elias Everest. Sir." they saluted. Richard's salute was lazy with his elbow pointing down rather than out.

"Pleasure." said the Major. "And Merhadee?" he gestured with his hand.

She stood at attention. "These are Corporals Arron Blake and Tabatha Cartwright."

"Tabby for short." stated Tabatha. Major Harrow gazed at Tabatha with an unimpressed look. "Uhh, Sir!" Major Harrow returned his gaze to the table followed by a heavy sigh.

"Watson, can you load up the signal."

"Momentarily." answered the ships AI. The sips AI was modelled after the character from the Sherlock Holmes books, they would've had the Sherlock model, but the Kilimanjaro beat them to it.

"You've been gathered here to investigate this signal." informed Harrow as he closed the recording. "Play." the signal was in a video format but it was corrupted with all that was coming through being static broken up by the occasional word. "…found somet…ndergroun…arkable…investi…" Roman took a step back folding his arms. "That's not much to go on sir."

"Wait for it." requested Major Harrow holding up his hand. "...eed help…thing afte…" each word was muffled by energy weapon fire. "…outnumbered…hey seem to…unli…anything we….een before…OOK OU…" the video was cut off by the sound of an explosion. "Shit…" exasperated Elias as he leaned onto the table. "You sure this is a job for us sir? I mean this looks like a job for a warship rather than a frigate." he asked.

The Major nodded in agreement. "I passed it up the chain and they told me that this has to be dealt with now before they sent me this." the Major tapped the PDA and passed the file to the holo-table but hovered over the play button. "Before I show you this you must know that night-fall is now in effect, any information contained in this file is classified top-secret and any of you were to divulge even a shred of this data, it _will_ lead to your incarceration and possible execution. Do you understand?"

Richard leaned on the holo-table, the plastic polymer frame felt cold on his skin. "Hold up, I thought the death penalty is illegal across all Alliance planets?"

This was true, when the Alliance became the first galactic power back in 2149 CE they abolished the death penalty due to population issues on smaller planets, opting instead for exile over death as those people could still have children which could come home. Incarceration was also a rare punishment as the cost to keep a prisoner these days was almost the same as a new fighter.

"This data is above top secret, as it stands only less than two hundred people know the contents of this file, after us it'll be two hundred and seven."

Roman gestured towards the pilots. "What about them?" the Major tapped on the holo-table twice.

"Watson. Bring down the partition; password entry will follow via manual input." Major Harrow brought up the keypad and typed in his password, the rest couldn't see what he was doing as it was only visible from his point of view but Elias counted 34 taps which was a long password to remember.

"Night-fall partition activated. Welcome Major Jake Harrow." responded a female VI. The floor around the table split apart and created a wall around them all with the holo-table being the only source of light in the blackness.

"Didn't know the ship could do that." commented Blake as he tapped the wall a few times.

"What this _is_ , is a vacuum created by separating the two walls of the flooring that were just brought up by venting the centre into space which, combined with the standard signal blocking tech, should stop all signals, human or electronic, from entering or leaving, this is 100% secure. Well 99.9% secure at least."

"What's so important that we needed to practically vent ourselves into space?" asked Elias slightly agitated. Elias hated the fact that he was separated from space by a single panel, he hated space in general and would rather be somewhere with a natural atmosphere. Somewhere where he wouldn't freeze to death in an instant if his eyes didn't pop out first, people have told his that it is almost instantaneous but that didn't really help. Major Harrow slid his finger across the holo-table and tapped three times in varying locations to which the table responded with a beep.

"Night-fall protocol is in effect. File 87251.6 cleared for viewing. Please state your names and ranks." requested the VI, the voice was soothing as opposed to Watson's uppity tone.

"Major Jake Harrow, initiating the authorised view of sensitive materials." the VI took a few seconds to respond.

"Confirmed." All present must state name and rank."

"Sergeant Renwald Roman."

"Renwald?" chuckled Richard. Roman glared at him again gritting his teeth.

"Confirmed."

Merhadee cleared her throat. "Sergeant India Merhadee." the AI took a while to respond.

"Sergeant India Merhady is an unrecognised name please try again."

Merhadee shook her head and sighed. "Bloody fucking machines." she muttered under her breath "Sergeant India Mer…had…ee." she said slower this time round.

"Confirmed." Richard chuckled quietly but was cut off when Merhadee thumped him. "Ow...sorry."

"Corporal Arron Blake." came the next name.

"Confirmed."

"Corporal Tabatha Cartwright." the VI had to think about that one.

"Confirmed."

Elias leaned forward, the holo-table illuminating his face. "Corporal Elias Everest."

"Confirmed."

"Corporal Alex Richard." the computer beeped in response. "What did I do?"

"Alex Richard is deemed untrustworthy from reports and is denied access, any and all information given to this person must be from an override command."

"Fucking what?" questioned Richard his smile disappearing. Major Harrow leaned forward breathing a frustrated sigh.

"Fucking hell Alex what did you do to warrant that?" demanded Harrow.

"I may have...uhh...accidentally crashed a shuttle into a military stronghold back on earth..." Richard rubbed the back of his neck.

"You are a major dickhead, do you know that?" added Elias.

"Major Dick Head is not a registered System Alliance member, please try again." responded the VI which was too much for Richard, he released a loud guffaw which would have descended into a full on laugh if Meradee didn't elbow him in the stomach.

"Ow...you're so violent..." he wheezed.

"Override lock on Alex Richard, priority access 104. Authority Major Jake Harrow, end naming input." Major Harrow shot a death stare at Richard who was trying to catch his breath.

"Confirmed. File 87251.6 will now be displayed." the screen flickered up from the table so all could see. It showed an old man with balding white hair and a freckled face in what appeared to be a red cave.

"This is researcher Pierre Molique on planet...489745, dubbed Gamma 5 or as I like to call it 'too fucking hot'. There is so much to talk about so I won't waste time." the researcher looked away as if someone was talking to him. "Anyway…" he picked up the camera and walked over to the other side of the room talking while he did so. "The artefact that was found isn't from a life that existed solely on this planet but another space faring species, with these artefacts turning up on several planets. Even Earth." the researcher stopped and turned the camera towards the Artefact and to the surprise of the group it appeared to be active, pulsating a level purple and blue light and was in the shape of a giant deep red box. It was somehow very transfixing.

"As you can see this artefact is quite active despite its advanced age, we don't know the exact age because we don't want to damage it with invasive test but initial tests of this…uh…let's call it a temple, puts it over 15 thousand years old but the device seems to be even older than that though, making it the oldest one we've found so far. As most people know by now that the 'Protheans' existed 50 thousand years ago and vanished but I don't believe that they were the only race around at the time. Judging by the design it doesn't look Prothean, in fact it looks…wrong…some...how..."

The researcher started to day dream again but shook himself out of it before returning to the camera. "The device seems to lower the concentration of people around it somehow, we can't detect any signals but there is something coming out of this that we can't see, only feel. The energy this gives off though is astronomical, nearly ten-times more than even our largest dreadnaught the SSV Kilimanjaro. If we could harness this energy, we could power a ship for centuries, hell you could supply an entire planet for a hundred years. The researcher looked at the device as if he was in deep thought. "Oh...uh, End recording."

Alex was about to speak but the recoding carried on. "Head Scientist Doctor Shoester here and we've made a discovery beyond anything we have _ever_ seen!" Shoester had an American accent as opposed to Milique's French dialect. "We've found out what the device was powering, and it turns out to be some sort of archive or at least some machinery hidden under the 'temple' which is centuries ahead of anything we have ever seen. Though similar to the Prothean archive on Mars, the data here seems to be focused on what seems to be a religious purge of some sorts. These archives also differ from Mars with the interface there is no keyboard or voice input but when you touch the cylinders your mind is flooded with images that hurt to recall but you can see them in the corner of your eye, it's positively fascinating but also quite maddening. The Protheans must have had some telepathic ability. This is an astounding find!"

The recording stopped for a few seconds before starting up again. "This just gets better and better! It appears we aren't the first ones here, our researchers have discovered bodies of an unknown origin in deeper sections of the temple. At first we thought we were seeing remains of Protheans but these bodies appear to be 1 thousand years old which is remarkable, these are not natives to the planet either, their equipment seems to be similar to ours in the way they use Prothean tech but their understanding is better than ours by a significant margin. Their bodies appear to be bi pedal like us with what appears to be a metal skeleton, or at least partially whether this is through evolution or self-implicated is unknown but what they do have is a lot of weapons, and bullet holes to match. It appears that there was battle here but only one set of bodies so either they fought each other or they were wiped out by a superior group it's impossible to know for sure after the state of decay these weapons have gone through. What we can take from this though is both exciting and disturbing. There is now a very high probability that there are actual aliens floating around out here alive, unless they too have vanished in the space of a thousand years which is unlikely. I can't wait for tomorrow!" the recording finally ended, the room was filled with a silence so quiet you could hear the hair growing on their heads.

"Wow…" said Richard, unable to find his words which was a first.

"That scientist was the one who sent the signal. The nearest warship is days away so we've been tasked to find the artefact and the scientists and bring them aboard the ship, if the artefact can't be moved we have orders to wait here for reinforcements 'no matter what' is that understood?" informed Harrow.

"I'm sorry, but is no one going to address what we just saw?" asked Elias with a pale look on his face.

"What is there to talk about?" said Major Harrow answering a question with a question.

"Well I don't know, let's start with the fact that there 'may' be life other than us floating around with weapons like ours and this is the first anyone hears about it. And not only that, but these artefacts have turned up on Earth and less than a hundred people know about this! How and why?"

"The how is a bullet and the why is above our paygrade." answered the Major.

" _Our_ paygrade?" asked Blake raising an eyebrow at Harrow.

"Yes! It's above mine as well. The only reason why we know is because we have to." Elias turned his head away grunting as he did so. "Look, do you think I like being in the dark as well?" asked Harrow defensively.

Sergeant Roman swiped his hand across the table in a lazy but thoughtful manner. "And what happens after we're finished here? I'm pretty sure a secret like this will be left with us for long, especially major dickhead over there. And then what? We'll be dead."

The Major nodded and pressed the eject button and entered the number seven onto the holo-table. "We have insurance." he said as a set of old fashioned data drives were ejected from the holo-table that were akin to the old USB drives used in the twenty-first century. "Here is seven copies of that file one for each of us, when you get the chance, make copies of these copies and copies of those copies and keep them hidden and tell only trustworthy people where they are but no matter what, don't tell each other. I will make sure that the brass knows that we are intent to keep living after this mission or their secret will become less secret." the atmosphere of the room got tense, they were not only committing treason they were trying to bribe the army they chose to live and die for just so they could live and not die, for a secret that could change how people viewed the galaxy. Their ideals thrown out of the airlock when put to the test. Elias would feel ashamed but he didn't care anymore, today he learned that the people he put his faith in to keep people safe has lied to them about something like this for no visible reason.

There may be life out there. His mind was thrown back to a quote he heard from school. _"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."_ From Arthur C. Clarke, this never sank in until now.

He reached out his hand with a slight tremble and took the drive before the partition was dropped. They all looked at each other, each with a deadly secret in their hands. They nodded and headed towards the armament deck.


	2. Memories

Chapter 2: Memories

 _"And what happens after we finished?"_ the words echoed in Elias' head as if they were bouncing of the walls. _"I'm pretty sure a secret like this will be left with us for long. And then we'll be dead."_ death was on Elias' mind a lot lately, he was near the end of his minimum service but he couldn't shake the feeling that his number was nearly up. _"And then we'll be dead."_ those words rattled around his head like an unwanted fly just out of swatting range but close enough to drive you mad with its buzzing. Just hovering ,waiting.

The bulkhead doors were scraping against the clamps as they opened, making an ear bursting sound. Elias headed over to the ships intercom. "Can I get engineering to bulk head 2C to fix the door between the armoury and corridor C please?" the ship was old, one of the first generation star ships used in the days of fossil fuels but retrofitted with Mass Effect Technology to make it space worthy, overall it was much more sturdy than some of the never stuff but it was in constant need for repair.

Elias remembered back in 2148 CE when he was only 14, humanity had discovered Mass Effect technology after they found Element Zero on Mars and then the Prothean archive, in the space of eight days the earth changed, religion was changed, science changed. Everyone changed. Suddenly the Earth felt so small and the universe was in reach for the first time ever. Many didn't believe it, some tried to deny it and some used violence to denounce the truth while others tried to prove it the same way.

The Alliance was created to give the members equal rights to the Mass Effect technology and to crush the impeding conflicts, countries started to merge and become one, there was no UK or China or America any more, there was only the Alliance.

Despite this stance though the Alliance wasn't considered a true governing body and therefore lacked the power to change Earth but that didn't matter anymore because the universe humanities for the taking and they fully intended to stretch their legs as far as they could.

Elias joined the military at the age of 18 as an NCO and was assigned aboard the newly refitted SSV Mayfair of the newly created 2nd fleet at Arcturus station, in the space of those four years humanity had discovered over twenty habitable planets and colonised over half of them one of them being his now home planet Sepulchre Prime which was named after the Sepulchre placed to honour the dead who crashed landed on the planet at its discovery.

The Galileo Cluster was unremarkable compared to its neighbour the Kepler Verge because it only had two planets but many, many moons. Elias could never get over waking up in the morning to see the asteroid belt rotating around the planet. Unfortunately this made casual space travel a dangerous venture so it was forgotten by most in favour of Eden Prime, name so because it was a paradise.

The Armoury door was unlocked when Elias got there by Sergeant Merhadee, she was a good soldier but an obvious kiss arse. She was out the door and into the armoury as soon as the Major gave the go order. Elias walked over to his locker to grab his underclothing, which consisted of a silk like body suit. As he opened the door he heard Richard and Roman talking or bickering down the hallway, it was impossible to tell with those two. "…all I'm saying is the first fleet is overkill for something like this." commented Richard as he led through the door followed closely by Roman. "You heard the recording and the Major, the stakes are high and we can't afford to not take precautions." retorted Roman, his faith in the military was always admirable to Elias and his only redeeming quality but now it seemed blind after what he found out. "The stakes would be lower if we were told." argued Elias as he carefully placed his chess piece on the magnetic lock, resisting the urge to slam it on the ground. "This would be a routine mission if we were told!" Elias' voice getting louder and more aggressive as he slapped on his knee pads which extended once attached.

Roman tried to reason with him. "The panic caused by such news…"

"…Would be far less if we are snuck up on by a superior possibly hostile alien race that our military has neglected to tell us about!" Elias' shout could probably be heard through the deck, these weren't shouts of rage or anger but shouts of fear. For the first time in his life he considered the fact that humanity could be targeted by a potential ally or a potential enemy. "There _'may'_ possibly be another living race out there that is capable of operating space crafts and armed with weapons that were superior to ours a thousand years ago. We didn't even have firearms back then, we were still using swords to cut each other to pieces." Elias put on his helmet and fastened up the oxygen mask. "Just consider than for a minute" his voice was a little muffled under the mask but his message was clear. Elias picked up his MK3 Avenger rifle and held it in front of him by the stock. "This won't be enough!" he placed it on his back and let the mag locks hold it in place. "This will not be enough!" he added, holding up Richard's Storm shotgun before he threw it over to him. "This won't be enough!" he said his voice getting angrier and angrier as he held up Tabby's Python sniper rifle before she snatched it from him on her way out. "This ship won't be enough. Our fleet won't be enough. NOTHING WILL BE ENOUGH!" Elias' voice was buckling under the strain he was placing on it. The room fell quiet the only sound was the bulkhead creaking under the pressure of FTL travel. Elias could feel the rage leaving him but some stayed behind to twist itself in his gut.

"This is Major Harrow, deployment of recon team one in ten minutes. Be at the air lock in five. Recon team two's deployment is standing at an hour but I want you at the air lock as well." Roman stared into Elias' eyes unblinking.

"We'll talk about this later. But until then keep those lips locked up tighter than Admiral Waters personal chambers because if a single word gets out I will take this pistol" Roman gestured towards his Kessler heavy pistol magged to his hip. "And I will plant a bullet straight into your face are we clear?" he asked through gritted teeth. Roman wasn't a threatening person, if this was another situation Elias would have laughed in his face.

"For now." Replied Elias, shoving past Roman to get to the airlock at the end of deck C. Elias stopped at the door but didn't turn around choosing instead to glance over his shoulder. "Oh…and sir?" Roman turned away from his locker. "If you do try to shoot me. Don't miss because I won't make it quick." Elias kept walking down the corridor without turning around.

"You just threatened the wrong man. Sir." said Richard placing shotgun cells in his shoulder pads. Roman didn't turn to face him but instead kept staring where Elias was.

"Put your gear on and shut up." he answered smothering his rage.

Elias was hardly the most stable member of the group, he had been known to take on a split personality at times. Normally this type of mental disorder would warrant a discharge from the corps but Elias had shown on more than one occasion to be an extremely efficient soldier. The fact of the matter is that many of the upper echelon of the N4s, 5s, 6s and 7s where that they had to be crazy to survive the training with a total of 80% of N7 operatives having some sort of psychosis, this madness made them nearly unbreakable.

Scout team one were already halfway down the hallway after Elias' outburst but they couldn't deny that he was right. "Do you think his concerns are warranted?" Blake asked Merhadee.

"We would be stupid to dismiss this news but if there really was another race still out there we would have found some trace by now." answered Merhadee continuing down the corridor, turning left to get to airlock C4.

"We've only been out here for about 8 years Merhadee, that's a short time considering how large the relay network is supposed to be." Merhadee nodded. "What do you think Tabby?" Tabatha was trying to adjust her helmet as it was sliding.

"I think…that we can't deny the fact that this news changes everything. If this race _is_ still alive then that could be a problem but also if this race is dead then what killed them and the Protheans off. Maybe they killed the Protheans. It all makes my head hurt anyhow." Elias caught up to them. "Blowing off some steam were we?" mocked Tabby with a friendly smile.

"Just educating the ignorant." replied Elias with a cocky grin on his face.

"Ohh, that's good I should use that next time I yell at the boss." joined Blake who was having trouble with his Avenger.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Elias. Blake whacked the rifle across the wall and it finally powered up with a slight whirring sound.

"Nothing now." he replied holstering it into the mag locks. "It would be nice if something worked properly." he added.

"When was the last time you had it serviced?" asked Merhadee, glancing back over her shoulder.

"Three months..." was Blake's reply which was met will vocal decent.

"Jesus man are you trying to get us killed? You should get a new one, a bad power cell is just as bad as having no bullets." Elias observed his rifle which was pulsating slightly. "You've got some serious energy fluctuations there, try not to blow your hand off." Blake checked the rifle again, holding it out away from his face just in case. The pulse was steady with one fluctuation every twenty seconds.

"It seems stable, I doubt we'll need it anyway. Actually, did command check for wildlife yet?" Asked Blake, Merhadee spoke over her shoulder.

"The Major has the scan results in the hangar, he'll brief us and then we'll be on our merry way."

"I wonder if we'll come across any more Fish-Dogs." Elias looked other at Tabby with a confused look.

"Fish-Dogs?" he asked slowly.

"You know, back on Benning in the Arcturus Stream, those dog things." Elias had to think for a second.

"Do you mean the Varren?"

"They call them Varren?" Elias Nodded. "Why? I prefer Fish-Dog because they look like Fish-Dogs." Elias checked which hallway they were in to judge the distance. They were in section 3 a few meters away from section 4 so they had time

"I'm told it's to do with their eating habits, they're not native to Benning and have been facing extinction due to lack of prey. You see the Varren can eat and eat and eat, if it gets full it throws up to eat again until everything is eaten, they're villainous and leave the world barren. So lo and behold ladies and gentlemen we have the word Varren, you got to love our ability to name stuff terribly."

"I don't know, I like it." commented Blake. "Varren." He said while holding his hands out in front of him like he was demonstrating a double wave. "Vvvvvvarren…" He repeated. "V,v,v,v,v…"

"Will you shut up?" snapped Merhadee without turning around.

"Fine." answered Blake who was now continuing the hand movements behind her back.

"Anyway, I would be more concern with what attacked the scientists rather than possible wildlife." added Merhadee.

They showed up to the airlock a minute early to see the Major leaning against the Grizzly sharpening his knife. "Morning." He said without looking up. The time was actually up for debate in space as the Alliance hadn't set up a real galactic time yet, All ships clocks were set to London GMT time for convenience but the FTL travel through the relays had been known to mess with the internal clocks, the current time on the ship was 6:39 AM, which in Elias' opinion was way too early to get up, distress beacon or no.

"You coming with us sir?" asked Blake as he tossed his rifle onto the work bench knocking over a box of screws as he did so. "Fuck..." he mumbled before he picked it up.

"Not this time Blake, the knife is more therapeutic than practical these days." The Major spun the knife between his fingers and slid it into its sheath in one fluid movement. "You gotta teach us how to do that sir." commented Blake as he tried to pry open his power cell chamber with a nearby screw driver.

"I will when you learn to look after your equipment." he responded with a bit of bite to his words.

"Har de har har, you're sooooo funny." joked Blake. "I'll…have you…know that…" Blake was straining to open the chamber. "I look after…my…equip…" the chamber popped open sending the screwdriver flying across the hangar. "…ment. Hmmm, that's not right."

"What's not right?" asked Merhadee making her way over to Blake.

"The cell is over heated. Haven't used it in a while either. Must be faulty." The power cell was a small cylinder with a tiny mass effect generator inside, they usually glow blue but this one had turned dark red.

"Toss it in cold storage with the rest and get a new one from the re-supply crates over there, can't have your rifle blowing up in your hand." as Blake made his way over to the cold storage crates he asked the Major a question.

"I've been wondering, what are the weapons for, did the scan pick up any Varren or something?" the Major pushed himself off the Grizzly and made his way over to the monitor above the work bench.

"You'll find out when the others get here. Speaking of which they're late." Major Harrow picked up his communicator and put it in his ear. "Roman, Richard where are you?"

"We're coming into section 4 right now. We'll be there in 3…2…1" they entered the hangar a second later.

"Should have counted from four." commented Richard as he strolled over to Elias. "You forgot this." he said while handing Elias his Heavy Pistol. The grip had over a dozen notches engraved into it.

"Thanks." responded Elias while trying to mag his pistol. Major Harrow stepped away from the monitor.

"Now that you're all here let's get down to business. Watson, project scan data on screen C4." A 3D scan of the planet popped up on the screen, it was a small planet about half the size of Earth's moon Lunar, but it was a lush garden planet judging by the foliage displayed, but something seemed wrong with the planet, it was too still. It seemed dead.

"As you can see, this is a garden world, toxicology reports state that it has an oxygen rich atmosphere 0.5 times more than Earth so you will feel light headed for a small duration. Even though you don't need them to breathe I suggest you wear your helmets with the filters turned on to prevent floral contamination and said light headiness."

"What about Fauna? Did the scan pick any up?" asked Blake replacing his power cell under the monitor.

"The scans show no visible life signs or anything really but that could be due to the foliage being too dense for a pass over scan. With no conclusive data we will assume maximum threat probability for the duration of the operation, so weapons will be fully loaded, and carry as many bullets as you could bring. Also due to the lack of sight on the ground both teams will be deploying at the same time now." weapons had come a long way since the discovery of mass effect fields, the technology was still experimental but the bullet would be exposed to a tiny mass effect field decreasing its mass by 20% so when propelled the bullet would hit harder, there are dials on the grip which are used to set the distance between targets, too much power and the bullet would go through causing little damage but on the other hand not enough power would cause the bullet to drop and loose velocity before it reached its target causing less damage. The biggest concern was ammo, until humanity further understands mass effect fields all they know how to do is decrease the mass of objects. There are mass accelerators available but they are on a large scale, miniaturisation of the technology has proven to be a difficult endeavour so the standard gun powder weapons are still in use. The only change is more power per bullet.

A voice came over the intercom. "Major, we'll be entering the atmosphere in two minutes." Major Harrow moved over to the intercom.

"Thanks for the update." he then turned to the group "If you got questions now is the time to ask them."

"Will we taking the Grizzly?" asked Roman stocking up on ammo.

"The M29 Grizzly needs at least three-hundred meters for a drop and the closest to the drop site is over 9 kilometres away, also the foliage is too dense, even if we did land the tank it wouldn't get far, so you're on foot." Roman nodded. "Any other questions?"

"No, sir!" came the reply.

"Good, we should be…"

"Entering planet's atmosphere in ten." came over the intercom.

"Never mind then." commented Major Harrow.

"Nine…eight…seven…six." entering the atmosphere was always a rough experience, especially if the planet had a thick atmosphere. "Five…four…three…two…one"

The ship shook violently as if it was receiving an electric shock. "Shields holding." the ship continued to shake, it felt like the ship would fall apart, the flames could be seen outside the window, burning a bright orange across the hull.

"Remember, team one will scout ahead and team two will head for flat, open ground. In that area team 2 will set up a forward operating base…" The ship bounced knocking them off balance. "…once that is done report to me immediately, you'll need to set up the antennas because of the interference. Understood?" It was difficult to understand over the sound of the ship but they heard all of it. "Sir, yes sir!" The ship started to shake less and slow down, Major Harrow approached the intercom. "Report."

"We hit a mountain on the way down but the shields took the damage, they are currently at…hold onnnn…60% and holding sir."

Major Harrow shook his head and muttered under his breath. "How do you hit a fucking mountain?" he gestured toward the hangar door. "Ok, open hangar door C4 and prepare to drop cargo pod 3" the hangar doors slowly descended towards the ground while ship hovered above a small clearing. "Teams, when you find a good spot for the FOB fire a green flare and we'll drop the supplies as close as we can, fire a red flare if you come across trouble and we'll see if we can help. Team two, yellow flare if you find the scientists alive or black if you can't find them or if they're dead, at which point we will relay your position to team one, understood?" they took the flares from the crates next to the Grizzly.

"Blake, how's your rifle doing?" asked Merhadee while she was loading her flare guns.

"The atmospheric entry shook it loose, I'll need to look at it...again." he responded trying to readjust it.

"We can't afford to waste time, Everest, you're with team two now." Elias was relieved to not be working with Roman for now, his little outburst earlier would surely cause issues.

"Understood sir."

"You have your orders, our relief will be here in three hours, your job isn't over until you are relieved. Have fun. Oh and try not to get eaten." Blake looked up from his rifle.

"Eaten?" he asked as Merhadee shoved him onto the ramp. The recon teams exited the ship, when they were clear of the hangar doors Roman got on the coms.

"We're clear of the doors, operation is a go." the doors started to close as the ship began to rise from the position it was hovering over, the noise was deafening. The engines required to keep the ship hovering were immensely powerful, noise cancelling technology was in the works but it was hardly a priority.

"So…Where to?" Asked Richard. Merhadee brought of the local map, the scientist's last transmission came from this rocky structure here, a few miles east of our position, there is no visible path from here because of this damn foliage so we'll have to wing it. There seems to be a large clearing here north east of our position where team two could set up the FOB but the high trees will prevent the Mayfair wouldn't be able to land there but they will be able to see us."

"It's close to the target site as well, less of a detour." added Elias who was helping Blake with his rifle.

"There is another possibility, eight clicks west there is a flat area where we could set up, it's further away but the ship can land there and it is large enough for the FOB and then some." commented Roman.

"It's your choice but remember that if we need help you have to reach us in time." responded Merhadee who was attempting to scan a nearby tree for any remarkable factors such as toxin or water. "I think option one is the best course of action, if we need to leave on short notice we can retreat back here rather than all the way down there." advised Richard eyeing his surroundings. Alex Richard was the squad joker on the ship but he quickly develops a professional attitude in the field.

"North east it is, we got our routes so let's try to stick to them." Roman put down a duffel bag and took out a small box with an antenna. "Take these relays and place them on a tree or something above ground level every twenty meters, our communicators won't work otherwise. We've only got five each so don't squander them. Call signs will be Bunker for team two and Hound for team one. Well…Lets move out then." Hound headed east to find the scientists while Bunker headed north-west to find the clearing on the map.

Hound was only a few feet away before they heard the gunshots.


	3. Hit and Run

Chapter 3: Hit and Run

"What the fuck happened?" asked Merhadee finally getting the communicator to work.

"We were shot at from inside the forest from and unknown enemy." replied Roman with a calm voice.

"Anyone injured?" asked Elias who was kneeling down pointing his rifle back the way they came, his finger on the trigger, itching, waiting.

"I think Blake shit himself but other than that we're fine." replied Richard.

"Fuck you!" came the voice in the background that must have been Blake's.

"Whoever was shooting at us seemed to be using a fully automatic from quite a distance, we returned fire and the shooting stopped, I would check for life signs but this interminable forest keeps returning a fucking error saying…'No signal _, try again_.' Piece of fucking shit. So either we're in a dark zone or our tech is broken and I don't think our tech is broken." A dark zone is an area where all electronic signals were purposefully blocked.

"So what you're saying is…" Elias stood up and walked over to Merhadee, encouraging her to finish.

"What he's saying is that our tech is being blocked by something." the situation felt heavy, only the Alliance Military had technology capable of signal blocking on such a large scale.

"If we're being blocked how come the coms are still working?" asked Blake.

"Internal network relays on the planet, this jamming signal is above the tree line, if we want to communicate with The Mayfair we need to draw her in." answered Elias while he configured his PDA, he was checking their current signal coverage only to find out that it was short wave only.

"It could be from the scientists, I mean wasn't this place supposed to be a secret?" asked Tabby playing with her spare clip. Removing a bullet and putting it back in.

"It is possible but I wonder who was shooting at us?"

"Could still be the scientists." interjected Elias, giving up on the PDA. "You said that they missed right and were firing fully automatics which seems like a lack of discipline to me." Merhadee nodded.

"Scientists can't shoot for shit either." added Tabby, Elias' brow furrowed as he adopted an unimpressed look.

"I'm a scientist." he responded in a flat voice.

"Well shit..." muttered Tabby with a blank face.

"Sorry to interrupt but wouldn't the security detail handle fire arms?" interjected Merhadee.

"They could be dead." suggested Elias, Merhadee looked to if he was joking due to the bluntness of his delivery. He wasn't.

"Well we won't get answers standing here playing with our dicks, Hound carry on to the last known position of the research team. We'll keep heading towards the FOB drop point and see if we can get some turrets dropped. Don't get killed." Roman sounded calm but Elias could sense the fear in his voice, _something_ wasn't right and he knew it.

"Understood. Alright let's move out." Merhadee led the group forward again.

The forest was a dense green with several plants of varying colours, Hound passed a tree that spiralled to the side with purple plants growing from it all reaching from the branches that held them up towards the sky, reaching like a yawning person. There was also some wild life running or rather scuttling around, little creatures that could be smaller than your finger nails lifting objects three-times their size or the colossal animals that resembled a stegosaurus but with only two legs rather than four and an appetite for the bark of a fallen tree. This place was beautiful on the eyes and warm to the touch but the team couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right here, they couldn't place it. It was like the very air itself had so much weight to it, the trees felt like they were going to collapse on them and the forest felt restless.

"What is the gravity of this planet?" asked Elias who was trying to cut through low hanging vines.

"It is -0.68 of Earth's G's." the gravity was weaker than that of Earth but why did Elias feel this sinking feeling then and where was it coming from, he had the feeling he was being watched.

Further back in the forest Bunker was having trouble reaching the clearing where they were going to set up the FOB. A tree had fallen in the forest which was blocking what seemed to be a path of some kind, it was barely visible due to the foliage growing over it but it was there. "Why do I get the feeling this tree didn't fall?" asked Richard, kicking it with his toe.

The tree was dark brown and massive, it must have been taller than a skyscraper back on Earth and just as wide. "Because it didn't." responded Blake. "See here…scorch marks and up there…you have ropes wrapped around the upper branches, I would bet my left nut they were connected to winches."

"I'd rather you didn't." retorted Roman looking for a way around, he pulled out his knife and tried to slam it into the bark which deflected the blade off. "This bark is harder than steel!" Richard tried to scan it but all the scanner did was bleep, asking to be reconnected again.

"There's no way were climbing over that. And we can't find out the density either so we can't blow our way through unless we're willing to risk our explosives."

Blake hopped on the spot testing how high he could go. "I think I have an idea." Richard and Roman turned to face him.

"And that idea is?" asked Richard gesturing his hand in a circular motion to encourage Blake to carry on.

"Have you ever heard of an explosive jump?" Richard grinned and Roman stared at them confused.

"Explosive jump?" he asked.

"It's when you use the explosive force from something such as a bomb or rocket launcher…to propel yourself higher into the air, it's used on planets where there is no oxygen and a low gravity, the lower the gravity the higher you can jump and the lack of oxygen prevents the explosive yield from killing you." Blake moved over to the tree while talking. "Now the gravity here is much less than that of earth…"

"There is oxygen though." Interrupted Roman, this was a good point for not only was there oxygen but the atmosphere was rich compared to Earth's. "Oh...and let's add the fact that this is fucking stupid..."

Blake ignored him, back on Lunar this was considered a sport which he had personally done in the past. "The containers used to carry the explosives is thickly lined with titanium to prevent accidental explosions from injuring nearby people if one goes off, if we place it face down and detonated a controlled explosion it should propel me up and from there I can jump over rope in hand to hoist you up."

"If you do that we'll have several pounds of high explosives in an oxygen rich atmosphere just out in the open." Roman pointed out.

"The fact is we need to get over this tree and Blake's idea is the only tangible one we have, we can't call in the Mayfair because the jamming signal and even if we did the surrounding trees are in the way. So I say we go with plan 'E' for explosive." Richard chuckled to himself.

"You're not funny." commented Roman as he moved towards the explosives with a huff.

"You sure? Because I think I'm fuckin' hilarious." added Richard as he got on the coms to Elias.

Further east Hound had found the excavation site and the sight was disturbing. Bodies had been impaled on spikes that have seemed to erupt from the ground, their bodies had been absorbed into the metal all fluids disappearing from their lifeless bodies and being replaced with…"…Machinery?" pointed out Tabby trying to maintain her composure but the disgust was all over her face like a mask.

"What?" asked Elias as he was throwing up in a nearby tree line.

"Their bodies are being cyberised…oh god." Merhadee barged past Tabby and marched over and climbed on top of the spike with rage in her eyes.

"Get them down. Now!" They didn't need to be told twice. Elias felt a bit dizzy, he couldn't tell if it was from the oxygen or from being sick but all he knew is he found it hard to keep his balance. "Elias put your helmet back on you know what this oxygen will do to you!" yelled Merhadee as she tried to pull the corpse off the spike, but as she made some headway it started vibrate violently making Merhadee loose her grip and fall to the ground.

"Get away from it!" yelled Elias as he ran over to help Merhadee to her feet. The other spikes started to vibrate. "Take cover!" She ordered as she was helped up to her feet. As they made it too the tree line the spike stopped vibrating and started to lower.

"Stay frosty." stressed Merhadee. There was no movement or noise for a few moments as they all waited with baited breath for something to happen.

"Do we have a fly-over drone?" asked Elias. A fly-over drone was effectively a small paper aeroplane looking device with a camera on it to provide quick reconnaissance over a large area, the small mass effect generators allowed it to hover or make a precise landing, despite the size and simplicity of the device it was expensive to make so only one unit member will carry one at a time and it was always stressed that they should be recovered.

"Yes but video won't work due to the signal jamming." replied Tabby reaching into her backpack.

"I don't need the camera, just control of the ME generator. Can you do that?" just before tabby could answer Elias' com unit started to beep.

"Keep your eyes open." he said as he took the call. "Hound 3, go ahead."

"Hey Elias, you're good at physics right?" Elias let out a sigh.

"Get to the point we've got some seriously messed up shit here." Richard took a deep breath and explained Blake's plan to him, Tabby and Merhadee couldn't hear the conversation but they could see Elias' face go more and more blank each second.

"So…is it possible?" asked Richard. Elias gave it some thought.

"It's _theoretically_ possible..."

"OK, thanks!" interrupted Richard before hanging up on Elias. Elias stood there for a second bewildered before he took the fly-over drone from Tabby.

"I will be able to control this right?" Tabby nodded.

"Albeit only temporally." she added handing him the controller.

"I only need a few seconds anyway." Elias threw the drone and directed it into the ground where the spike was. The corpse moved.

"What the actual fuck!?" exclaimed Merhadee.

"Total cybernetic reanimation…" answered Elias reaching for his rifle.

"Cybernetic reanimation?" asked Tabby.

"I was dead but now thanks to technology it's not." informed Elias.

"Now is not the time for questions, open fire!" ordered Merhadee as she opened fire on the shambling corpse making its way over to them. Tabby took her sniper and began to aim.

"Distance?" she called.

"8 meters and closing!" responded Elias. Tabby adjusted the dial on her rifle for 7 and waited for it to come close enough, too soon and the bullet would only wound, too late and the bullet would pass through. A corpse shuffled into range. She took the shot, the bullet slung out the barrel carried by a fury of flame and lodged itself in the creature's head causing it to jerk violently and drop to the ground. "Nice shot." complimented Elias as he reloaded his rifle. Another creature started to shamble off the ground followed by another and another and another until all thirty-three bodies were shambling towards them.

"Call it!" yelled Tabby as she scoped in.

"10 meters, 9 O'clock!" pointed out Elias as he opened fire. Tabby took the shot taking him down, these creatures had stopped shambling and started to jog. Bullets were passing through their shrivelled bodies but it took massive amounts of damaged to kill one. "Reloading!" yelled Elias as he ejected the clip. "Do we have any grenades?" he asked trying to yell over the gun shots.

"Here!" hollered Merhadee tossing him a grenade. Elias in-putted a blast yield of 15 meters with a flame intensity of 100%. "GET DOWN!" roared Elias as he tossed the grenade into the oncoming crowd. The explosion was much more than 15 meters with the air around it catching fire which made it reach 30 meters doubling its explosive yield. The explosion knocked everyone back.

"Sound off." called Merhadee coughing as she did so.

"Hound 3 checking in." whimpered Elias who had whacked his whole body against a tree when the explosion hit. He looked over to see Tabby who was face down and not moving. "Hound 2 is down!" he screeched. "Tabby is down!"

"Hound come in." there was only static. "Hound this is Bunker 1, do you copy?" the static was foreboding. "HOUND TEAM, COME IN!" ordered Roman but there was still no response. "Damn this fucking jungle!" blustered Roman kicking a nearby tree. If he wasn't wearing his boots the force would've broken his toe but instead the boot took the force showing a visible crack.

"What do we do now?" asked Blake who was setting up the explosives when they heard the echoes of gunfire. The explosion was visible all the way from their position.

"We go find them." said Richard as he stood up and grabbing his shotgun. He started for the tree line but he was blocked by Roman. "Get out of my way." he ordered through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry Richard, you want to help I know that but it would be quicker to set up the FOB and request an armed drop to help them out, if we trek of into that forest they will be dead before we reach them. If they aren't already..." Richard kept trying to push past.

"Oh for god sake Rich, he's right! Now stop wasting time and help us, every second you waste acting like a prick is a second they don't have. Now get over here and help me!" ordered Blake as he went back to setting up the explosives. Richard looked down at his feet and sighed, they were right but that didn't mean he liked it. Richard moved over to the explosives to finish setting them up.

"We're ready." informed Blake as he fixed the rope to his belt.

"You sure about this?" asked Roman preparing the detonator.

"Fuck no." was Blake's reply before he took the detonator and held it up. "You're going to need to stand back quite a bit." Roman and Richard took cover behind some nearby trees. "Ready!?" asked Blake.

"Just fucking do it!" called Richard. Blake looked at the detonator, his hands shaking. He took a deep breath to steady them. "This is going to be…interesting." he muttered to himself and pulled the trigger.

The ground shook as the explosion tried to find a way out only to find a small gap in the lid, the force sent Blake up in the air at a rocket pace. He could feel the air resistance big time nearly crushing him under the pressure. He would have kept going up if the rope didn't tense up and bring him back down again. Blake landed on top of the tree with a light thud, the lack of gravity made his descent slow. Like he was sinking in a pool. He landed on top of the large tree and looked over the edge only to experience some slight vertigo from the height, this tree must have been one of the tallest in the forest because it towered over the ones next to it while lying down. The tree also seemed strange up here, there were some cracks in the bark and Blake could see what appeared to be metal which was purple-ish-red. It seemed so fascinating, he wanted to touch it. As he reached for it he could hear a faint voice call in the distance. "Blake." It said. "Blake, where the hell are you?" Blake realised it was Roman calling to him, he walked over to the edge and looked down, Roman looked like ant from up there but he could see him.

"What?" he asked.

"Turn on the relay so we can try and reach the Mayfair!" he responded. Blake removed the relay from his backpack and switched it on, as soon as he did he heard a myriad of signals that bore through his brain and stunned him for a moment.

"What the fuck was that?" came Richard's voice through the com.

"Feedback…I think." was Blake's response. The signal gave Blake an idea.

"I'm going to try something." He said. "Hound come in this is Bunker 3, repeat this is Bunker 3 come in."

"This is Hound 3, receiving you Bunker 3." Blake rushed to the edge.

"I've got them!" he yelled. Roman got on the com unit.

"Hound this is Bunker 1, do you read?" Roman could hear an audible sigh on the other side of the com unit.

"I already said yes for god sake." Roman was overjoyed but had to remain professional so he hid it with a light cough.

"Report Hound."

Elias walked over to Merhadee who was tending to Tabby and tapped her on the shoulder . "Bunker on the com, what do I tell them?" Merhadee let out a sigh and shook her head.

"I don't know." she responded. Elias got back on the coms.

"It would be…difficult to describe so I won't bother, Tabby is out cold and we have no scientists and I'm pretty sure I've just burned down half the forest...How's the FOB coming along?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa what do you mean Tabby is out cold?" Elias made an awkward cough.

"I said we'll talk _later_. How is the FOB coming along?" he asked again with some bite to his voice.

"We're working on it." Roman finally replied.

"Let us know when you make contact with the Mayfair, Hound 3 out." Elias went back over to Merhadee who was administering a combat med-kit to Tabby when they heard a noise from inside the cave. Elias didn't know why but he was drawn to the cave by an insatiable curiosity. "I'm going to check it out." He informed Merhadee and made his way to the cave.

"Elias. Wait!" she called but it was too late he was already at the entrance. There was a relaxing warmth coming from the cave, it felt like a pulsating star, wave after wave of heat, his muscles relaxing and all his aches disappearing and his legs weakening. He stepped further in ready for more of those things to attack but at the same time he was at ease.

The interior of the cave seemed strange, the temple was evident from the door way but these natives carved it out of metal. The other thing that struck Elias as irregular was the lack of degradation, the metal should have developed imperfections or the surface should have dulled by time but the walls were smooth and clean as if they were polished only yesterday, the carvings were as prominent as the day they were carved.

The lighting was another thing that seemed wrong, it was a deep dark red slowly pulsating brighter and darker, so slow you wouldn't noticed it until the darkness was on you. He reached the object and found someone sat at its side staring at it, muttering. "Hello?" Elias asked with an uneven tone. The person froze in place and slowly started to turn their head to see who the intruder was. Elias knew this man, or who he knew who he was. It was Doctor Shoester the head scientist of the research team.

"Doc?" there was no response. "Doctor Shoester?" his eyes glanced over Elias as if he wasn't there at all. Elias summed it up as PTSD. ' _He must have seen some awful things…'_ Elias thought to himself as he moved over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. There was still no response, not a shudder or even a breath. _'Wait…'_ Elias thought to himself as he checked for a pulse only to not find one. Elias leaped back and pulled his pistol on the Doctor, the sound of it unfolding itself must have got Shoester's attention because he finally looked Elias in the eyes. There was something wrong with his eyes, they were cracked like a window and luminescent blue.

On closer inspection Elias could see small scars under his eyes and below the chin. _'Surgical scars?"_ he theorised. Doctor Shoester shifted and Elias adjusted his gun to keep it lined with his head. "Who are you!?" He demanded. The Doctor didn't speak all he did was gesture towards the device, each movement being followed by Elias' gun. The Doctor moved towards the device. "Don't move!" Elias demanded taking a step forward trying to add force to his words but the Doctor didn't listen and took another step.

He was four steps away from it so Elias tried to warn him again. "If you take another step I _will_ shoot you!" still no response. "STOOOOOOP!" Elias demanded gripping the trigger tighter. The Doctor lifted his foot slowly as if he was taunting Elias, daring him to shoot. "DON'T…!" he ordered but the Doctors foot kept falling. Elias shot a bullet through the Doctors knee. This would stop a person from walking but the Doctor didn't feel it, or he didn't show it at least and just kept walking. _'It's not possible…'_ He fired another bullet but at the Doctor's head punching straight trough but the Doctor kept walking. "What are you!?" interrogated Elias, his words were meant to be sharp but they were dulled by the fear blunting the edges and bouncing off the Doctor who failed to acknowledge him.

Elias took another shot but the bullet was stopped in mid-air by the Doctor, his arm held up and his hand outstretched producing a purple mass effect field just emanating from his fingers. _'_ _ **It's not possible!'**_ Elias tried so hard to deny what he saw before his eyes. Elias shot his last twelve bullets in rapid succession, one after another they were stopped and suspended in mid-air inches mere millimetres from their target. The Doctor closed his hand and the bullets disintegrated before their eyes.

Doctor Shoester was at the device and Elias was scrambling to replace the clip, as Elias reloaded the gun it was removed from his hands. It's felt like someone snatched it from him but there was no one there but the Doc who was on the other side of the room. Elias reached for his rifle but was flung back while his hand was behind his back and he was pinned to the wall, it was like a car came to rest on his chest, pressure everywhere. He couldn't move.

Doctor Shoester placed his hand on the device and the entire cave hummed louder. The sound tore through Elias' brain. One sentence bounced around his skull like a ricocheting bullet, each time it tore through, his head would thump and burn. Each syllable was gashing wound cutting deeper and deeper. Each letter brought a new pain unlike anything he ever felt, the stabbing over and over again. The words came one after another slow and methodically. "I…" the pain was great, like needles jabbing away at his neurones. "…am…" Elias's nose spurted blood all over the floor, the voice was deep and it echoed through his soul covering up the sound of his own screams. "…Sovereign…"


	4. Our Future

Chapter 4: Our Future

Merhadee could hear Elias' screams from inside the cave but she couldn't help him as Tabby was still unconscious. "STOP!" was all she could hear echoing from inside the cave. "PLEASE!" each word tore through her heart making it harder and harder for her to hear. She got on the com to see if she could reach Bunker to see if they contacted the ship yet.

"WHY!?" demanded Elias as the images pulsed through his head, tearing down his will bit by bit. Doctor Shoester lowered his hand and Elias dropped to the ground. Elias laid there chocking on his own breath for a few moments, the hum of the cave resonated in his brain, echoing through his soul.

"The Protheans were a mighty race weren't they? Spanned most of the known galaxy with technology that allowed a primitive race such as ours to explore the stars and travel across solar systems in less than a heartbeat." Elias tried to stand up but couldn't find his strength, he tumbled back down to the ground as he leaned on his hands. "But what if I told you that their technology was like ours, appropriated from another race." Elias finally made it to one knee but fell back to the ground when Doctor Shoester lazily kicked him under the chin and carried on speaking as if nothing happened, it was almost like he was talking to himself and Elias was just scenery. "They called this race the Inusannon who also took technology from other races to subsequent their own technology, and before that the Arthenn who did the same and before that…"

"Get to the point!" demanded Elias, finally finding his voice.

Doctor Shoester glared at him. His gaze was cold. "…my point is that all these races took their technologies from one race. And you stand before one such creature. Marvel in its magnificence!"

Elias smirked and started to chuckle. "You've lost the plot doc!" he guffawed with all his energy as he found his way to his knees. "It's a fucking glowing BOX!" Doctor Shoester marched over to Elias with rage in his eyes and his fists clenched, he swung his leg at Elias' face again but Elias caught it and pushed him away. As Elias made it to his knees Doctor Shoester stretched out his hand and Elias started to convulse as he was lifted of the ground, screaming in pain Elias reached for a grenade but was prevented from doing so.

"These gods are more than this!" instructed Doctor Shoester as he clenched his fist making Elias experience pain in muscles he didn't know he had bringing on a whole new wave of pain. "They are gods!" he demanded. "They will engulf the stars in their shadows as they descend upon us in a blaze of purifying fire!" the more doctor Shoester spoke the more mechanical his voice became, losing the inflection in his tone and replacing it with a slight echo so soft that you could miss it. "You don't gaze upon it! You are engulfed by it! You were engulfed by his power as you entered his domain. Every step you took you fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, unknowing that you have already devoted yourself to him, you just don't know it yet!" Elias _did_ feel strange but it wasn't the pain from the Doctor, it was a feeling of understanding. A part of Elias wanted to agree with the Doctor but the rest of him refused to buy what Doctor Shoester was selling.

"You're mad." Replied Elias with the utmost conviction.

"Oh you'll believe. I'll just have to show you." Doctor Shoester drew Elias in and picked up a device. "Ohhh, you'll most certainly see." asserted Doctor Shoester as he placed the device against Elias' head. Elias began to scream with renewed purpose as the pain ripped through his brain.

Merhadee heard Elias' screams once again. The blood curdling shriek kept taunting her, her impulses were running rampant, and her mind conflicted. Every step she took forward to help she took another one back because Tabby was still unconscious, she couldn't leave her alone in this state, if she was attacked she would be defenceless. Merhadee needed to do _something_ so she got onto the com unit. "Where the fuck is the ship!" she shrieked, she didn't mean to shriek but it just came out when she opened her mouth, at this point she couldn't control herself, tears rolled down her emerald eyes onto her pale, blood stained cheeks.

"Assault team one is ready they just need to find your position." Replied Major Harrow through the com, his words were laced with concern. Merhadee grabbed her flair gun and fired it up into the trees. The trees began to rustle and the air began to hum.

"We're coming in! Hold tight!" urged the pilot but as the humming got louder Merhadee could hear a hissing noise faintly behind her. She turned around to see one of those things as it pounced on her trying to rip into her face with its teeth. Despite the lack of muscle it was strong, pulling her in centimetre by centimetre. All Merhadee could do was scream as the teeth drew closer and closer to her face, the metallic smell of its breath was unmistakable but she could also hear a voice ever so quite inside the mouth, whispering 'Kill me' in a groaning and pained voice. As the teeth reached her face she lashed out with a vicious head-butt knocking it off her but also disorientating her. As the creature fumbled clumsily to its feet Merhadee drew her sidearm but found it hard to see properly, her head still throbbing from the head-butt and her vision blurring she took a shot and hit it on the arm which knocked it back down but didn't deter it. Merhadee tried shaking her head to clear her vision but all it did was make it worse. She aimed for the head and took the shot but it missed, the second shot hit the leg and made it drop. It was crawling on the floor towards her now, Merhadee tried to steady her gun but couldn't even steady herself. The creature was breathing distance away before Merhadee took the shot which punched through the left eye and out the back making a hole the size of a tangerine. The creature appeared to be dead but Merhadee didn't want to take a chance so she scrambled to her feet and stomped on its head with all her might and squished it like a pumpkin, lodging her foot inside the skull. "Disgusting…" she commented as she tried to drag her foot out falling to the ground as she did so.

"Merhadee?" came Blake over the coms. "Were above your general area but we need another flare." Merhadee crawled over to Tabby and took her flare, as she aimed it up a voice in her head told her to sleep. "Rest now…" the voice was ever so gentle and peaceful. She _was_ tired. _"What's the harm in a quick snooze"_ she though as she started to close her eyes. _"NO!"_ her mind demanded as she shook herself awake immediately pointing the flare gun to the sky crying as she did so.

The flare was red as blood and made Major Harrow's heart race. "Why is it taking so long!? Step to it!" He ordered. The ship came to rest over the position of the flare but was unable to land due to the tree line. "Strike team 1 you'll set up a perimeter around Hound 1 and 2, then you'll discover the fate of hound 3. Richard, Blake and Roman you'll join strike team 1 and cover the medics. Understood?" they all nodded. The hangar doors opened slowly. "Rappel in 3…2…1, GO GO GO!" ordered Major Harrow as he kicked the ropes down. The drop was a good kilometre or two but the low gravity made the landing soft and bearable.

"Strike team is on the ground and making contact with Hound now sir!" came the report from corporal Vael. Strike team 1 found Merhadee curled up into a ball muttering to herself, her words were succinct, repeating the same thing over and over again. "The cycle…the cycle…the cycle." the image was disturbing because Merhadee was an N5 operative, they were known for being tough meaning that something must've been horrible to break her.

"Get them, to the med bay now!" demanded Roman as he barged past the corporal to check on Tabby. Her helmet had cracked causing her to be saturated with oxygen, he put his fingers to her neck to find that she had a weak pulse.

Richard was looking around. "Where's Elias?" he asked moving corpses to find his friend. "Where is he!?" he demanded getting more frantic in his search efforts, overturning and throwing bodies aside corporal Vael marched over to him.

"Sir, you need to calm down." but his words fell on death ears as Richard kept frantically moving bodies, each face a mangled wreck of tubes and wires staring back at him with cold mechanical eyes, he just about given up hope. Until he heard the scream.

Visions poured through Elias' head with a ferocity he never knew possible, he saw a great city with buildings that reached to the stars laid barren and empty before him…no not barren, he shot into the city like a bullet passing corpses of creatures he's never seen, one after the other slaughtered by each other, each time he passed a body a flash of mechanical components would flood his vision, skin tearing open to show the robotics inside and underlying the screeching sounds was a mechanical roar following him, after one final screech everything went dark for a while. As Elias went to catch his breath the darkness exploded into light of a sun as he backed away he could see another sun as they orbited around each other but he kept going further and further back through space passing a planet before he came to rest on above a small garden world shrouded in black. Elias could feel the pull of the planet as he slowly fell into the welcoming blackness until he was engulfed by it, he floated there for a while before a creaking noise sounded from the blackness. A red outline began to form as a giant creature flung itself from the darkness, roaring as it did so, its legs reaching for Elias. All he could do was scream as it collided with him.

Elias was barely conscious but he could still hear Doctor Shoester talking. "What did you see?" he asked shaking Elias. "What did you see!?" he demanded as he dropped Elias and grabbed him by his hair placing the barrel of his gun to Elias' head. "WHAT DID YOU SEE!?" his mechanical voice scraping against his tonsils was a disturbing and painful sound, Elias was fully aware but he couldn't act, his eyes wouldn't open.

 _"I know this hurts you…"_ rumbled a voice in his head. _"You are a pawn, a tool to be used and discarded at our whim."_

 _"Who are you?"_ questioned Elias.

 _"We are the solution."_ came the cryptic reply. The voice was soothing yet painful.

 _"Solution? Solution to what?"_ Elias mind conjured images in the dark reaches of his mind, giving his thoughts form. He conjured up the grass of Sepulchre Prime, the orange tinted sky, Elias found himself standing outside in a field, the wind blowing through the tall grass and his hair as he started to relax.

 _"To you…"_ came the late reply. The ground started to shake violently, tearing itself apart under Elias' feet.

 _"What are you?"_ asked Elias as he tried to find this creature.

 _"We are eternal."_ The creature's echoing voice crumbling the ground under Elias' feet as he ran. " _The pinnacle of evolution and existence."_ Elias could feel the voice getting closer and closer but he couldn't see anyone behind or in front of him. _"Before us, you are nothing."_ The creature's steady and balanced tone was unnerving, chilling Elias to his core.

 _"But what are you!?"_ demanded Elias as he tried to catch his breath.

 _"We are legion. The time of our return is coming."_ the sun began to darken as Elias ran. He turned to look up. _"Our numbers will darken the sky of every world."_ A giant creature made of metal like the one in his vision came floating down from the sky, blotting out the sun as it did so.

 _"…Sovereign…the doc called you sovereign. Is that your name?"_ The creature's landing looked gentle but once its legs touched the ground the whole planet shook and send Elias flying backwards in a storm of dust and leaves. Elias hit a tree and fell to the ground, coming to rest a few miles from where he was standing.

 _"Sovereign... A label created by your doctor to give his beliefs voice. In the end, what you chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply... are."_ Elias didn't understand, all the cryptic answers, the threats.

 _"What is your purpose?"_ Elias asked as he got to his feet.

 _"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence."_ The creature, this Sovereign was gigantic, larger than the SSV Kilimanjaro, about two kilometres long. It was still bouncing from the impact of landing.

 _"Have you come to destroy us?"_ asked Elias.

 _"Yes…"_ was Sovereigns reply, devoid of emotion but filled with purpose.

 _"Why?"_ probed Elias. Sovereign hesitated for a moment as if he was considering his words.

 _"The cycle must continue."_ Was his final reply. Elias took a few steps towards the behemoth before him, he looked so close but he was actually miles away.

 _"Cycle? What cycle?"_ Sovereign appeared to have no eyes but Elias could feel them on him.

 _"The systematic eradication of all advanced forms of life."_ Elias immediately took a step back.

 _"I don't know what you are or where you came from but hear this, if you stand against the might of humanity you will fail, we will fight on very planet in every solar system in every galaxy before we let you wipe us out!"_ Sovereign tilted towards Elias slowly.

 _"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the Vanguard of your destruction. We are your doom and also your future, your damnation but also your salvation, your death but also your rebirth...you cannot stop what is coming and when it does come you will welcome it. The time for the cycle has come, this exchange is over..."_ Sovereign began to fade into Elias' mind along with the grass and the sky until Elias was just left floating in the darkness for a moment before he woke up in the med bay.

Richard had rushed into the cave followed by Roman who was chasing after him. "Richard! Wait!" ordered Roman but Richard wouldn't have it, Elias' screams had silenced a few minutes ago and Richard had to find him. The corridors of these caves seemed to be deliberate, if you looked closely at the walls you would see that they were polished, tubes hung from the ceiling fixed into place by hidden mechanisms, there was a constant mist rising from the cracks and the floor felt like it was humming, a very low and steady hum that you felt rather than heard.

Richard could hear a voice deeper in. "What did you see?" came a familiar voice echoing off the walls. Roman finally caught up to Richard, panting and trying to speak.

"There yo…" Richard held up his hand to silence Roman and gestured towards his ears.

 _"What did you see!?"_ Roman nodded and started to follow the voices with Richard in tow. _"WHAT DID YOU SEE!?"_ they barged into the chamber to see Elias unconscious and Doctor Shoester a gun to his head.

"Alliance marines!" informed Roman.

"Put the gun down Doc!" ordered Richard barging past Roman pointing his shotgun at Shoester's head. "Put it down now!" He demanded a second time. Pressing the barrel into his temple with his finger squeezing the trigger. "Or I **will** shoot"

"You cannot break the cycle." mumbled Doctor Shoester to practically nobody, hissing out a laugh as he did so. "It has already begun." Doctor Shoester elbowed Richard in the chin and moved his gun in his direction but was shot in the shoulder Roman. Doctor Shoester initially didn't react before he dropped to the floor in a dramatic manner.

"The fuck…?" pondered Roman before he moved to restrain the Doctor. Richard sat up groaning as he did so.

"Bastard got me good." He mumbled clicking his jaw before looking over to Elias. "Elias?" he called but he didn't stir, Richard rushed over and checked his pulse. "Don't you fucking dare!" he stressed.

"He alive?" asked Roman dragging Shoester to his feet.

"Alive but unconscious." responded Richard with a breath of release as he checked him for injuries. "We need to get him to the ship." urged Richard.

"You can't stop the cycle…" muttered Doctor Shoester as Roman fastened the restraints around his wrist. "…they will eclipse the sun in a shadow of death…" Roman dragged the Doctor to his feet violently. "…they will reap our souls and make us perfect…" Roman started to shove the Doctor out the cave.

"You know what would be perfect?" he asked rhetorically. "If you shut the fuck up!" Roman had a grin on his face as he reached the room entrance.

"…don't fear the reaper for he is here to make you perfect..." muttered Doctor Shoester ignoring Roman's words. "…yes…Reaper…" were the last thing he muttered before he was shoved out the cave into the bright sun.


	5. Curiosity

Chapter 5: Curiosity

Doctor Shoester was chained to the table due to the fact that he kept attacking people, he was wriggling and writhing with all his strength to get out screaming as he did so. Major Harrow had ordered the ship to meet up with the first scout fleet which was accompanying Rear Admiral John Grissom. "Admiral." commented Major Harrow saluting as he did so.

"At ease." he responded. "You've met second lieutenants Steven Hackett and Tadius Ahern?"

"Ahern, yes. Hackett, no." he responded as he walked over to Hackett and shook his hand. "Pleasure." he said before he walked over to the window.

"This better be important Major, I have to head to Arcturus to meet the new N7 recruits. There's one I've heard a lot about, a young man named Anderson and I would very much like to meet him."

Major Harrow stopped and turned. "This is an interesting one to say the least…" he said before continuing towards containment cell 1. "You read the report I trust?" asked Harrow as he scanned himself through the door.

"Glanced over it. I'll believe it when I see it." was his answer as they approached the one way glass. On the other side was Doctor Shoester being interrogated but it seemed that he was just ignoring them, his eyes were seeing through them. As they approached the glass he stopped thrashing around and slowly turned his head to stare at Admiral Grissom, unblinking.

"Doctor Shoester, or what's left of him at least. Scans show that his genetics have been altered and that most of his internal organs such as his skeleton and muscles have been replaced or embedded with machinery. In fact the only thing that seems to be organic is his skin and most of his eyes." Admiral Grissom was stood next to Harrow with his arms crossed. The glass may have been one way but it didn't matter to Shoester.

Admiral Grissom was, like most admirals, a man of advanced age. He saw conflict back in early battles of the colonial expansions, specifically the conflict between the US and Russia, they both wanted control of the planet Themis due to the richness of H-3 fuel in the atmosphere. The newly formed Alliance was called to settle the conflict peacefully but the American ship fired upon the Russian ambassador ship causing a conflict that threatened to spill out into other systems so the Alliance was forced to destroy both flotillas in a show of force, the Alliance fleet consisted of only two dreadnoughts back then which were 'gifts' from the UN, the Kilimanjaro was the one on scene while the Everest was tasked with preventing entry of reinforcement fleets. The resulting conflicts resulted in the destruction of 25 American ships consisting of mostly frigates and their only dreadnought the USS Washington, the remnants were later used as part of the construction of Arcturus station. The Russian losses were totalled up to 12 ships which were carriers and frigates, the Russian Dreadnought, the Mendeleyev, was severely damaged and would later be retired and retro-fitted to become the SSV Elbrus which was the Alliance's third dreadnought. The conflict saw the recognition of the Alliance as a real military power and ended all attempts of single country expansion. This was back in 2151 in the early days of space travel, nearly seven years later and most conflicts have died out. But most people remember Grissom as the first man through the Mass Relay, it was an honour for Major Harrow to be stood next to him and he knew it.

"You sure he's Doctor Shoester? I mean he could be a construct." theorised Grissom.

Hackett nodded "Extensive alteration to a human body such as this without damaging the epidermis would be nearly impossible. The report states that he has surgical scars though." He added. Major Harrow walked other to a containment cell where there was a dead humanoid creature being autopsied by two men in full hazmat equipment, surrounded by four armed guards with shotguns trained on the body. "This here is…or was, one of the scientists." Hackett and Ahern couldn't hide their disgust, visibly wrinkling their noses at the sight. Admiral Grissom seemed undisturbed by the creature, Major Harrow handed Admiral Grissom a dossier which he opened and glanced at before handing it to Hackett.

"Dr. Samantha Taylor…I know that name." said Hackett reading the dossier.

"She was one of the scientists who worked on the Prothean archive on mars." informed Ahern taking the dossier from Hackett.

"These…things, are the result of Nano-tech manipulation." informed Harrow.

"Nano…what?" asked Ahern. Major Harrow tapped on the glass and it removed the shade from it allowing the scientists to see them.

"Gentlemen these are Doctors Akher and Verchance. Doctor Akher would you be kind enough to explain your findings."

Doctor Akher cleared his throat and stepped forwards. "Certainly sirs." he had a thick middle eastern accent which was a cross between Egypt and Iranian. "Reports from the field are that the creatures before you were laid onto spikes that impale them through the chest, just below the heart. The spike, though primitive in appearance, has several tiny, tiny holes where it appears to store Nano-bots. It's nearly impossible to tell but we have had indications that the device keeps the organic tissue such as blood and muscle tissue but for what purpose we don't know. What we do know is that these creatures have no intelligence in any form, they are reanimated by a shock and just attack the first living creature they see." Doctor Akher glanced over his shoulder to the corpse. "We've never seen anything like this."

"I have." informed Admiral Grissom, which surprised everyone in the room. "We were investigating a Prothean signal on a planet, I can't tell you which. When we arrived there were caverns that went through most of the planet, we found these creatures down there with the spikes." Admiral Grissom turned his gaze to the creature. "These are Prothean constructs as far as we know, shock troops for warfare, we call these things husks. We were instructed to keep it a secret because it was too early in our space faring existence for something like this to come to light, most people see the Protheans as creatures of knowledge and peace and we don't want that opinion to change to warmongering, genocidal fanatics. We've mostly found damaged weapons or the effects from said weapons in our early surveys. The dominant theory with the higher ups is that the Protheans were locked in a civil war which led to their extinction, most of the planets or outposts which had a Prothean presence showed obvious signs of battle but only a Prothean presence was found along with several building sized craters."

"Husks?" asked Ahern.

"They're a shell of what they were, nothing in their hearts or minds. They're husks of their former selves hence the name." Major Harrow tapped the glass again and it returned to tinted.

"But why keep the organic components?" he asked as he headed to the med bay.

"That, we never found out." answered Admiral Grissom. The med bay was nearly full with three out of the five beds in use. With only a crew of 30 the med bay was kept small but well stocked.

"This is Hound squad who were down on the planet at the point of contact. In bay one we have Sergeant Merhadee who…"

"Merhadee?" interrupted Grissom. "She was an N5 recruit not too long ago, what did you do to her?" he asked as the partition was opened to reveal a gibbering wreck muttering to herself over and over. "The cycle…the cycle…the cycle…" the sight made Grissom's heart sink, he could handle people dying, at that point their pain was over but losing a soldier to insanity was worse, they would feel the pain of their mind losing its grip day by day until they but empty shells. Like Husks.

"…who suffered severe psychological trauma after encountering multiple…uhh Husks down on the planet. We've tried to question her but all she says is…" Major Harrow gestured towards her. "The cycle…the cycle…" Major Harrow seemed calm but Grissom could recognise the pain in his eyes, he knew the pain of caring for people under his command all too well. They closed the partition and moved over to bed two. "Here we have Hound 2 aka Tabatha Cartwright or Tabby for short, she was knocked unconscious down on the planet. From what we could get out of her during a bout of consciousness she was knocked out by a close range grenade blast, she was found unconscious next to Merhadee but she has shown no psychological trauma and should make a full recovery." Admiral Grissom picked up her medical chart and began to flick though it.

"When will she be able to give a full report?" he asked putting the chart back.

"Hard to tell, the optimistic estimate is about four days."

"So no time soon then." concluded Hackett.

"Who's behind curtain number three then?" joked Ahern, he was known to be a difficult person to get along with due to his cynicism and his inappropriate jokes.

"Curtain number five actually." responded Harrow as he they walked over to the ICU and lifted the partition. "This is the man we want to speak to. Hound 3 aka Elias Everest, he was found unconscious in the cave with Doctor Shoester." Ahern walked over to Elia's vitals monitor and noticed that his brain waves were too erratic for a man in a coma, they more resembled a man in terror. "The team that found him, Bunker 1 and 2, reported that Doctor Shoester interrogating Elias and was asking him what he knew before they detained him and he was also muttering something about 'the reaper' or some crap like that."

"His beta waves are too inconsistent for someone who is unconscious." observed Ahern. "If you have a look his rapid eye movement is above average as well, he appears to be intensely dreaming." Ahern pulled Elias' eyelid back to see his eye darting backwards and forwards at an alarming rate.

"You think he saw something?" asked Hackett.

"I don't think he's stopped." answered Harrow as he waved the doctor over. "Doctor Chakwas, how is Elias." Doctor Chakwas was a young woman in her late twenties with green eyes and dark black hair, she had only been on the ship three months but she had already demonstrated an aptitude for advanced medical care unusual for a doctor of her age.

"Physically he's fine, no broken bones, no internal bleeding and no signs of bodily harm. If he was interrogated he suffered no physical harm. His brain activity is too active for a coma but he's unresponsive."

"So what you're saying is he's faking it?" asked Ahern as he shone a light in Elias' eye.

"What I'm saying is…" Doctor Chakwas stopped as if she was trying to find a way to word it. "…it's like he's trapped in a nightmare." Ahern burst out laughing.

"Trapped in a nightmare! Do…do you pay her for this service." He blurted to Major Harrow.

"It has been known to happen." Ahern promptly lost his smile.

"What?" he asked cocking his head and raising his eyebrow.

"Soldiers who have experienced traumatic events can experience dreams that are horrifying, couple that with the ability to lucid dream and your trapped in a prison you make for yourself." Major Harrow rubbed the back of his neck, he could feel a headache coming on. "Doc, was Elias a lucid dreamer? Can you even find that out?" he asked.

"Honestly, it's impossible to tell unless he actually told someone…I'll pull up his file and see if there is a note on it."

"You do that." urged Harrow as he turned to Admiral Grissom. "Another issue is if he was tortured mentally rather than physically then he will most likely suffer from physiological which could be why he won't wake up." Grissom rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"We will just have to wait for him to wake up." concluded Grissom. "What about the box? I heard that your AI found something."

Harrow nodded. "He said he found a VI that goes by the name of Monarch" Elias twitched.

"He'll do that." informed Chakwas.

"Anyway, Watson reported that the VI is contained inside the box but is thus far too corrupted to provide any info, Watson assures me that given enough time he can pull something from it but in the meantime I think we should return to containment cell 1. Maybe they've got something out of Shoester by now." They made their way to the containment cells leaving Chakwas to care for her patients. Military life wasn't what she expected, it wasn't as romantic as she was led to believe, no soldiers with tough faces but soft eyes, just injured people screaming or dying. This job made her feel lonely at times but she felt responsible for them so she wouldn't give up on them. Never.

"How's the interrogation going?" asked Major Harrow as the interrogators left the room.

"Fucking nowhere!" answered Richard kicking over a chair.

"He won't talk. The only noise he makes is a scream." answered Roman giving Richard a glare, Richard sighed and picked up the chair he kicked over and sat on it.

"If I go back in there, I'll kill him." He informed. Ahern looked over to see Doctor Shoester glaring at Admiral Grissom.

"I think he likes you." He joked.

"Huh?" asked Grissom.

"Shoester, he seems to be interested in you, all he does is stare when you walk by."

Grissom walked up to the glass and stared back thinking for a moment. "I'm going in."

Major Harrow took a step forward. "Sir?"

"He wants to talk to me then he'll talk to me." Major Harrow took another step forward.

"Or maybe he wants to kill you." Grissom walked over to Richard and took his sidearm.

"Good luck to him then." Grissom replied as he made his way to cell door.

"I must protest!" urged Major Harrow only to be brushed off by Grissom as he entered the cell closing the door behind him.

"The first sign of trouble, you shoot Shoester. Understood?" Richard drew another sidearm out of his boot.

"Yes sir." he said loading a clip with a grin on his face. "It would be my genuine pleasure." Grissom paced the room not looking at Shoester but he could feel his eyes on him, watching his every step. As Grissom passed the table he suddenly punched the Doctor with a right hook knocking him and his chair over. The men were taken aback by this sudden and violent display.

"What are you!?" he demanded kicking Shoester in the shin which made an audible crack but Shoester didn't make a noise, not even a grunt. "Answer me!" Grissom ordered as he stomped on Shoester's hand breaking the index and middle finger. But he still refused to acknowledge the pain, let alone answer.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Roman. "Didn't know Grissom was so…"

"Aggressive?" answered Hackett.

"Yeah, I always expected him to be one of those nice guy types who…" there was a loud thud in the containment cell. "…everyone would get along with but he's kind of an asshole." Ahern grunted in agreement.

"That happens quite often, people swarm him asking for his autograph and what not, but in reality he hates the whole fame thing. He just wants to work." there was another crash in the containment cell as a table came flying into the glass making Richard fall off his chair in surprise.

"You ready to talk now?" called Grissom as he pulled the table off Doctor Shoester. Grissom grabbed him by the throat and lifted him against the glass to which Doctor Shoester smiled down at him.

"Such aggression…" Shoester's voice vibrated with a machine like echo, Grissom dropped him to his knees and drew his sidearm. "…you are a doomed race. Your death is necessary and inevitable you..."

"What are you?" demanded Grissom pointing the gun at Shoester's head.

"This one is a puppet. An organic vessel for our will." Roman and Richard joined Grissom in the cell armed with their side arms.

"A vessel? A vessel for who?" Richard and Roman took positions around the Doctor in an attempt to surround him.

"We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution. Before us you are nothing."

"What do you want?" was Grissom's next question, gripping the gun tightly he added pressure to the trigger, the atmosphere in the room was tense as they awaited an answer.

"We have planted the seeds of your destruction, what we…want, is already within our grasp. You took it from the planet before we could finish but it does not matter. For every second it is in your possession it will get closer and closer to our goal."

"The artefact." concluded Major Harrow and it seemed Hackett agreed because he was searching the logs for the location of the artefact.

"Did you bring it aboard?" he asked Harrow keeping his voice low.

"Of course, it's in the cargo hold right now, I have a science team working on it right now being guarded by Blake." Hackett got on the com unit and walked away from the cell.

"We have a problem bring the ship around in case…" Hackett was out of ear shot. "And what goal is that?" questioned Grissom still pointing his gun at Shoester's head, watching for any movement what so ever.

"The cycle must continue."

"Cycle? What cycle?" question Grissom. Doctor Shoester scrambled to his feet and lunged at Richard but was shot in the head before he reached him, collapsing on the floor with a loud thump.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Richard as he unfroze. "Nice shot sir." He complemented to Grissom.

"We are infinite…" Richard jumped away from the talking corpse.

"Holy shit!"

"Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure." Grissom walked slowly over to Shoester and placed hit boot on his head and the barrel of his gun between Shoester's eyes.

"Endure this." he grunted before firing three shots is succession.

"I think you killed him, sir." joked Richard.

"Burn the corpse." he said before leaving the room throwing Richard his sidearm back on the way out.

"That man is next level scary." he commented before holstering his weapons.

"Major Harrow! What's the progress on the artefact?" Major Harrow gestured his hand towards the bridge and they both headed off.

"They managed to pull some co-ordinates for what appears to be a dormant mass relay. Whatever this relay lead to was important for the Protheans, the VI embedded inside was…talkative." Major Harrow used his key card to unlock a door and they both continued on.

"Talkative?" asked Grissom.

"Yes sir. The VI took to calling itself 'Monarch', when we asked why it said that it was an "appropriate title" Some of the stuff it said was very…uhh…I'm going to go with threatening."

"Let me guess, 'You are all puppets and blah blah blah destruction of your race blah blah blah.' Am I right?" Harrow nodded his head.

"The VI is gone though." Grissom stopped Harrow and stood in front of him.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Major Harrow brushed passed him.

"The VI was only being transmitted to the device via a relay but when you shot said relay in the face the connection was cut and the VI disappeared. We don't know the origin of its transmissions but it would be a safe bet that we would find it through these co-ordinates."

"Odd behaviour for a VI though." commented Grissom.

"Watson believes it's from either the corruption or poor connection. He also theorised that it was some sort of Prothean war VI." responded Harrow, opening the bulkhead door for Grissom.

They arrived at the cargo bay where Hackett and Blake were waiting for them. "Sirs." they greeted.

"Where's Ahern?" asked Harrow. Hackett gestured towards the Grizzly where Ahern was sitting.

"Ahern! On me!" ordered Grissom.

"Sir!" came his instant reply as he jumped of the tank and joined them.

"Grissom this is Blake. Blake, Grissom." Blake saluted.

"At ease. Tell me about this relay can we reach it?" asked Grissom to Blake.

"According to our maps and the Prothean maps the relay is near Shanxi, we'll have to jump to a nearby cluster and manually fly to another nearby system which will take a few hours at least. That is if it's still there."

"What do you mean?" questioned Ahern.

"These coordinates are over 50 thousand years old, anything could have happened in that time to move the relay. We've calculate the current position of the relay taking into account the decaying orbit but if a supernova went off or a particularly large solar flare it could be anywhere." answered Blake putting down his PDA.

"Harrow. You and Ahern will investigate this relay. I'll be sending the 3rd explorer flotilla with you." informed Grissom.

"And you and Hackett sir?" asked Ahern.

"We're off to Arcturus like we should have been an hour ago. Ahern you'll be on the secondary escort ship. Harrow you are officially a private escort on loan from the Alliance survey corps, you are not to divulge the reason of your presence or the events that led to the discovery of the relay. We'll say R&D found it. A working Prothean VI could be invaluable and dangerous, find it and contain it. Dismissed!" Harrow and Ahern saluted.

"Sir yes sir!" as Grissom turned around to leave the ship but Harrow called out. "What about the artefact?" Grissom stopped and turned around.

"Hold onto it for now, it may be important. But keep an eye on it, if it is as important to this 'Monarch' as Shoester says then we'll to find out why."

There were six ships in the flotilla, all of them were small scout ships or frigates. The flotilla also had a science ship which was called the SSV Mother of Invention. Science ships were civilian funded vessels dedicated to space exploration, they were usually larger than a frigate but lacked offensive capabilities. At the Alliances behest though the ship was fitted with cannons for defence purposes. Ahern was currently aboard the second Alliance escort ship which was a corvette class. Corvettes are small, ten-man craft used to perform combat and survey missions and are usually seen escorting scout flotillas such as this. Discovery of a relay was always an eye opener for humanity and drew a lot of attention. Alliance escorts were now mandatory due to the increasing number of pirate attacks, especially with regards to mass relays.

"We're two hours away now major." informed the pilot. Major Harrow settled in his chair waiting for the unknown to show itself.


	6. Trapped in a Dream

Chapter 6: Trapped in a Dream

Doctor Chakwas was stood over Elias trying to figure out his condition, his physical signs were good minus a few scrapes and burns, internally he had no injuries and his heart rate was at a slow and steady resting pace. To the outside world he was completely still and at peace but his brainwaves showed immense stress and trauma, as if someone was taking his mind apart one synapse at a time. There was nothing she could do except wait so she went to check on Tabatha and left Elias to his dreams.

Elias was still on Sepulchre Prime sitting in the yellow sunlight with the lavender breeze blowing through his hair, he was at peace but something wasn't right. _"Son!?"_ he heard in the distance but Elias couldn't be bothered to answer. _"Elias!?"_ came the second call closer but still far away. _"Oi you lazy little shit!"_ came the third call from just behind him. Elias leaned back and looked up.

 _"Hey dad."_ he said with a flat tone in his voice to the old man stood above him with an excited look on his face. _"Where's the fire?"_ Elias asked as he lazily stood up.

 _"It's here!"_ exclaimed his dad as he vibrated on the spot. Elias couldn't figure out what he was talking about.

 _"What is?"_ he asked rubbing the back of his neck as he yawned.

 _"The parts…"_ he answered unimpressed. _"…for the ship?"_ Elias suddenly remembered the little project he and his dad had been doing since he arrived on the planet. They were trying to get their own shipping business going so they started to build their own ship, a small cargo ship no bigger than a Corvette to carry farming items that they had been growing. They had a name for it and everything, The SSV Sovereign.

 _"Oh shit! The ship parts are finally here?"_ he blurted out. His dad nodded with a smile like the Cheshire Cat on his face.

 _"Quick! Let's get it done before your mother comes home!"_ Elias groaned in pain as his head began to ache.

 _"You alright?"_ he asked.

 _"Yeah, I think I stood up too fast."_ concluded Elias as he shook it off and they made their way back home. On the way back Elias couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched, like there was a set of eyes fixed on him from all angles.

The sun was high in the sky when they reached home but that could've meant anything, the days were 53 hours long on Sepulchre and even then the nights were bright due to the nearby planet reflecting almost 40% of its light. he sky was clear with no cloud in sight, only the clear blue sky could be seen. Elias' dad picked up a large box that rattled with each step. _"Let me see!"_ Elias demanded, hopping on the spot due to excitement like a small child.

 _"In a minute."_ his dad replied with a teasing tone as he carried the box to the motor pool outside and set it down. His dad cleared his throat. _"Ladies and gentlemen I would like to show you…Drum roll please."_ Elias started making drumming noises with his mouth and preforming the hand movements. _"…the final component…"_ the suspense was killing him. _"…the crème de la crème…"_

 _"Hurry up!"_ Elias demanded.

 _"Alright, Alright…*ahem*…OUR ENGINE!"_ Inside the box were the components for a ME35 Titan drive, very expensive but very, very powerful. Elias picked up the primer and held it up with a smile on his face.

 _"We're really going to do it…"_ he said.

 _"Hell yes!"_ answered his dad taking out the instruction download key. This was their dream that they've been building for 3 years but Elias couldn't help but feel a sense of dread that something wasn't right.

They worked on it for hours and hours until the sun finally set giving the fields a blue glow and in the silence, a growling noise was heard before it abruptly cut out. _"I don't think it should make that noise."_ estimated Elias.

 _"We must be missing something…"_ concluded his dad. Elias rummaged around the box to see if they were missing a part only to find a single screw.

 _"I think we found our culprit."_ informed Elias holding up the screw.

 _"Well fuck…how do we know where it goes?"_ Elias was about to say _'I don't know'_ but there was a knock on the door.

 _"Who knocking at this time of night?"_ he asked as he walked to the door. As he approached the door the person behind it knocked again. _"All right, All right I'm coming!"_ As Elias opened the door all he saw was the butt of a rifle before everything went dark.

Major Harrow had been called off the bridge to the med bay because Tabatha had now woken up. "Doctor." he acknowledged as he entered the room. "How is she?" he asked getting to the point.

"She's lucid but I don't know for how long."

"Let's not waste time then." instructed Harrow as he lowered the partition. Taby had taken quite a hit, her face was severely bruised and her spine had suffered a few fractures but even through that she still had a smile on her face. "Hey soldier." greeted Harrow with a soft tone to his voice, unheard of before.

"Hi sir." responded Tabby with a weak groan.

"Sucks eh?" he asked taking a seat beside the bed, Taby nodded slowly. "Are you able to talk long?" he asked leaning back.

"We'll see." she responded. Major Harrow nodded and placed the recording device beside her.

"Tabith…uh…Taby, can you tell us what happened down on the planet?" Taby tried to sit up but couldn't and slumped back down with a groan.

"We…we knew something was wrong as soon as we touched down on the planet, Elias noticed it first."

"How so?" questioned Harrow as he leaned forward.

"It was the…the air, it felt almost like…like we were being crushed by it." Taby coughed a few times and Doctor Chakwas was about to step in but Major Harrow waived her off. "Elias asked what was the gravity rating and Merhadee said it was…uh…-0.68 compared to Earth so realistically we should've felt quite light but no…" she broke out into a coughing fit again.

"Sir I must protest…"

"She has an emergency buzzer, if she feels she needs you she will press it!" yelled Harrow before he turned back to Taby with a soft look on his face. The man was as malleable as heated iron.

"It was like the jungle was watching us, trying to suffocate us…" Harrow handed Taby a glass of water and she took slow sips of it, coughing between sips. "…we found the cave entrance but it was covered in corpses…donned on spikes…" Taby heart rate began to speed up and Major Harrow could see Doctor Chakwas in the corner of his eye shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "…we tried to get them off! But the spikes lowered and the bodies began to walk…screeching and roaring…"

"Sir! Enough is enough!" Major Harrow held his hand up aggressively to shut Chakwas up.

"…were surrounded…couldn't breathe…they were closing in...Elias threw a grenade and…nothing…" her heart rate began to calm down again. "…nothing…the explosion went off then I...uh...woke up here." Major Harrow stood up and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks Taby, you've done well. Get some rest, we'll need you on the bridge again. I think Blake has a bit of a crush on you and I would rather not have him distracted." he joked, Taby's heart rate rose a little bit again as she tried to hide her embarrassment before she felt a jab on her arm. She looked to see that Chakwas had given her a sedative.

"Thanks…" she muttered before going to sleep again.

"That was…educational." muttered Harrow as he turned to leave the room.

"We could of got something from Merhadee if you didn't leave her with the fleet." argued Chakwas. Major Harrow sighed.

"She was beyond our care. We don't have the facilities or the personnel to deal with mental patients!" Chakwas was about to argue back but Major Harrow got there first. "Chakwas, I know you're good at what you do but this pride of yours needs to be curbed. Fast!" Chakwas would've argued further but Major Harrow got on the elevator and closed the doors before she could even take a breath.

Elias woke up tied to a chair with his dad next to him who was unconscious and had a massive gash on his face. _"Dad!?"_ he called. _"DAD!?"_ there was no answer but Elias could hear people in the ship rummaging around. _"Hey! You mother fuckers!"_ he yelled at the top of his lungs. The clanging sound stopped and everything went quiet, Elias could hear them muttering before he heard them approach. Two men and a woman entered the room with rifles and masks on.

 _"Quiet you!"_ demanded the man on the left, he had a thick Irish accent which would be easy to identify...good.

 _"Fuck off!"_ replied Elias, he could feel the ropes that they used to tie him up were loose, he just needed one of them to hit him so he could suddenly shift without drawing attention.

 _"I said quiet!"_ one of them demanded as he whacked Elias with the butt of his rifle but it wasn't hard enough, it almost felt like he was holding back.

" _Ireland eh?"_ asked Elias as he spat out some blood and a tooth.

 _"Don't ask questions."_ responded the other gunman who also had an Irish accent but his was less obvious.

 _"I'll take that as a yes."_ muttered Elias with a grin on his face.

 _"Why does it matter to you?"_ asked one of the gun men.

 _"So I can find you and gut you."_ answered Elias with a menacing smile.

One of the gunmen burst out laughing. _"Gut me? You must be insane to think you're going to find us. Or that you're leaving alive."_ he leaned in close to gloat but Elias head-butted him and broke his nose.

 _"You little cunt!"_ he moaned cupping his nose to stop the blood. The woman walked over and punched him with her fist which was harder than the first punch but it still not enough.

 _"Not bad…"_ complimented Elias as he spat out his left molar. _"You hit harder than those so called 'men' over there"_ the first assailant took offence at this and stomped towards Elias with his fist clenched.

 _"Bring it…"_ grinned Elias. The man hit him hard enough to knock his chair which was Elias' cue. Elias got one arm free and hid it behind his back and waited for them to lower their guard, so he came up another plan. As they lifted his chair up again he spat in the girls face and the man on the right hit Elias as hard as he could knocking him out. Or at least they thought he did.

 _"What a real piece of work."_ complained the woman as she walked off. _"You stay here and watch him."_ she said to the more Irish one. She was American by the sound of her voice. Elias couldn't tell where the guy was so he had to guess when to look.

Elias raised his head slowly and opened his eyes to see the guy staring right at him. _"Fuck…"_ Elias muttered before swinging his chair into the guy knocking him over with a loud crash. Elias dived on him and tried to wrestle the rifle from him, he could hear the other two coming so he decided to fight dirty and wrapped his teeth around the guy's neck, he tried to scream but Elias was clamping down too hard for any noise to come out, then Elias heard the crack. He had broken the guy's neck with his teeth, he could feel his body slowing down as he twitched slower and slower until he was still. Elias took the rifle and waited pointing it at the door but instead of the robbers coming in he saw a grenade bounce through the door way. _FUCK!"_ he yelled as he charged into his dad and knocked him over, the explosion burned Elias' back and all he could hear was a loud ringing noise. He rolled off his dad and aimed at the door way waiting for the assailants to come in.

The girl came in first guns blazing hitting Elias in the shoulder but the bullet passed through, Elias put two rounds into her chest and she dropped the ground gargling as she did so. The other guy screamed at the top of his lungs and charged in with the fury of a raging bull, that however made him an easy target and Elias put a bullet through his mouth killing him on the spot. Elias sat up groaning as he did so, the wound on his shoulder bleeding profusely.

Elias could hear his dad coughing behind him. _"Dad?"_ he asked turning around to see his chest bleeding. _"DAD!"_ he screeched as he scrambled over to him. _"How, I don't get…How?"_ Elias' dad pointed to Elias' shoulder. _"NO!"_ he yelled. _"NO! NO! NO! You can't do this to me!"_ Elias' dad put his arm around Elias' neck and pulled himself close.

 _"Look after your mother…"_ he urged. Elias' head began to hurt again. _"You hear me? Take good care of her!"_ thinking about his mother made Elias' head hurt for some reason. _"These people are scum, they all deserve to DIE!"_ yelled his dad slamming his fist on the floor. _"Kill them all!"_ he urged. _"Every last one of them!"_ Something about what his day was saying began to resonate in his mind. _"Every, last, one of them!"_ Elias dropped his dad as jumped back picking up a rifle as he did so.

 _"Who are you?"_ he demanded, tears rolling down his eyes.

 _"I'm your father." it_ reasoned. _"Son what would your mother say."_

" _Ahhhhhhhhh!"_ Elias screamed in pain as his head began to throb. After the pain had gone Elias knew why it hurt whenever his mom was mentioned. _"My mom...has been dead for eight years!"_ Elias aimed at its head. _"Eight years!"_ Elias' hands started to shake. _"She died in a transport accident..._ " Elias zoned out for a second as his mind drew back to the even. He may have only been a child but he could remember it perfectly. _"I will ask this one more time. Who! Are! You!?"_ It dropped his arms and stood up, it's face now devoid of all emotion.

 _"Interesting…"_ it said, its voice sounded familiar. _"…most interesting…"_ it repeated circling Elias. Elias could recognise the voice, it was just at the back of his mind. He tried to pull the trigger but something was stopping him. _"…you have seen through my ruse, most organics are seduced by their perfect world too much that they will bend to my every whim to remain there."_ It kept circling Elias slowly making him dizzy and tired, the voice had a metallic grind to it with a slight echo. _"But I have found something interesting with human minds, they resist peace, they resist perfection…"_ Elias felt tired, his arms weakening, he wanted to fire so bad but he couldn't muster the strength. _"…the only thing humans will accept is pain"_ Elias mind began to burn making him drop the rifle and fall to his knees, clutching his head as he screamed.

"Sir. We're are approaching the relay now." Major Harrow made his way to the cockpit accompanied by Roman.

"Status of the relay?" he requested.

"It's like we thought sir, dormant. Scans show that it will need some hard wiring before we can activate it." Major Harrow nodded.

"Roman, take Blake and head to the Mother of Invention."

"Sir." he replied with a salute and headed off to the bunks. Major Harrow turned back to the pilot.

"Hail the flotilla and tell him to be on standby." the pilot nodded and hailed the other ships.

Down in the living quarters Richard and Blake were discussing the state they were in. "There were six healthy specialists on this ship and now there are only three. We've lost 50% of our effective crew" complained Richard who was lying in his bunk staring at the ceiling.

"At least they're not dead." said Blake who was tinkering with his rifle, the power cell was still malfunctioning.

"Merhadee has lost her mind, Taby may never serve again and Elias is in a coma." Richard rolled over onto his side. "You have to see how fucked we are." Blake lowered his head, Richard had a point but he didn't want to admit it.

"Blake, you're with me." informed Roman as he entered the bunk.

"Me?" he asked.

"The relay needs some patchwork and you're our only Zero-G certified tech." Blake stood up putting his rifle away.

"Don't the science buffs have a few of their own?" Roman nodded as he grabbed his rifle from his bunk.

"The Major wants personal oversight on this one. Too much is off here and the higher ups don't want any mistakes." Blake went to put his rifle in his locker. "You'll need that." said Roman.

"Why?" asked Blake.

"A precaution." replied Roman with a concerned look on his face.

The hallway was deserted as usual, for a ship this size the crew was rather small. "So what did you do with it?" Asked Roman without looking at Blake.

"With what?" Blake was confused, Roman had been acting strange since they came back from the planet, speaking in pronouns and riddles.

"The insurance?" Blake remembered the data chips that contained the evidence against the Alliance.

"It's in my…" Roman held his hand up to silence him.

"Don't tell me _where_ it is just tell me _if_ you hid it." Blake nodded and they continued to walk in silence until they reached the hangar bay. Roman handed Blake his EVA suit and waited for him to suit up. "Remember that you have two com channels, the first is the broadcast channel for general information such as progress reports and stuff while channel 2 is the private connection to this ship, use it if you see anything suspicious or if you suspect someone is up to something." Roman radioed the pilot to tell him they were ready to dock. Blake was feeling uneasy, this was too secretive for his liking.

The Mother of Invention was as Roman imagined it to be, sterile white walls with rooms dedicated to chemistry sets and plants. The bright lights were giving him a headache, the sterile nature of the ship was making him feel depressed and ill. Luckily for him the cockpit had been toned down with grey rather than bright white. "Major Harrow I am on board the Mother of Invention, we're ready to begin."

"Acknowledged, is Blake patched in?" asked Harrow.

"Yeah, I'm here sir." informed Blake

"Call signs for this operation will be Alpha and Omega, use these from now on."

"Yes sir, Alpha out." Roman switched the com channel to broadcast frequency. "Operation is a go, I repeat operation is a go." The engineers were lowered onto the relay to begin work, despite being able to repair damaged relays they didn't know how it really worked. It seemed that the relays were designed to be easily repaired and used but impossible to study. "Do you have an assessment Omega." Blake put down his tools and asked the head tech for an estimate.

"The head tech thinks it'll take an hour, I'm inclined to agree, it looks like it was hit by a meteor storm at one point, I'll let you know as soon as we have a full damage assessment, Omega out."

Back on the ship the pilots had discovered a strange signal and were attempting to figure it out. "Issue?" asked Major Harrow standing over their shoulders.

"Sir the scanners have seemed to have picked up several fast moving objects heading this way." Major Harrow pulled up the display.

"Can we get a LaDAR scan?" the pilot attempted a scan.

"Too far away sir."

"How many?" he asked, concerned. "

One very large one sir, about the size of a dreadnought and four cruiser sized objects." Major Harrow got onto the private coms.

"Alpha, have the ships picked up movement yet?"

"No sir, the relay is leaking Eezo causing our scanners to go on the fritz, give me a sec to compensate." Harrow could hear people running around in the back ground.

"Sir! LaDAR is coming up!" Harrow rushed over to the display module to see five ships bearing down on them of unknown origin. They looked similar to Alliance ships but they had adopted a wing like structure as opposed to the alliances rocket structure and they were sporting an almost tribal looking insignia.

"Those are ships…" said the pilot with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"Watson?"

"They are not registered in any Alliance or civilian databases. The shape has also never been used by human engineers." answered Watson in less than a second. AIs could think and react in a matter of Nano seconds, by the time you were finished asking a question an AI would've been able to answer it and finish a crossword puzzle just for fun.

"They're not human..." concluded Major Harrow. "And at that speed they're sure not friendly! Get the ship to battle stations and the other ships out of here." Major Harrow moved to his command module ready and waiting to finally meet another race.

Elias couldn't take the pain, he rolled around on the floor screaming in agony but the thing pretending to be his dad kept the pressure on him. _"Why do you resist? You_ _ **will**_ _be mine, how much pain you endure before that happens is up to you."_ all Elias could see were flashes of ships descending onto every planet like a plague of locust slaughtering and killing everything that opposed them while imprisoning and consuming those who didn't.

 _"You_ _ **will**_ _be mine, you will open the door and allow us to return and the cycle will continue."_ Elias' mind flashed with images of the ships in dark space, they looked like gods waiting to pass judgement down on the lesser races. Elias forced these images out of his mind. _"SUBMIT! END YOUR TORMENT AND MY OWN!"_ It hit the side of their ship.

" _I see…"_ Elias mumbled as he slowly got to his feet.

 _"See what?"_ asked It.

 _"You're not my dad, you're not human and to top it off you're not even here…Sovereign."_ Elias was on his feet now. _"I'm not even here. This is all in my mind, me and my dad never built a ship together, his dream was never to live a quiet life. This place is all wrong, the sun is orange not yellow!"_ Elias walked over to the door and threw it open which let in a cool breeze. _"The air smells like copper not lavender."_ Elias looked up to the sky. _"And where is the asteroid belt? You put a lot of effort into trying to fool me but you couldn't get the little things right."_ Elias walked over to Sovereign with a gun in his hand and pointed it at his face. _"Stop wearing his face!"_ he demanded, finger on the trigger.

 _"The cycle must continue."_ Elias threw the rifle and grabbed Sovereign by the arms which caused Elias' mind to flood with visions of Sovereigns mind, his thoughts.

Elias could see what he used to be, a race part of the 15th cycle known in their time as the Arachna, they were small creatures the size of a dog with six legs and big black eyes, despite their appearance they were peaceful creatures with no weapons or conflict, in fact they were celebrating the invention of AI when the reapers attacked. All Elias could hear were the dying screams of an entire race being wiped out, the survivors were rounded up and processed, melted and injected into the shell and made into what Sovereign is now.

The first cycles Elias could feel the pain Sovereign felt as he wiped out other races but cycle after cycle he grew indifferent to other organics and eventually grew to hate them. Sovereign was used as a vanguard for every cycle for thousands of years he would hibernate and awaken again and again until the cycle was to begin again. The cycle was late though and Sovereign was growing desperate and Elias needed to know why, he forced himself past the horrors of the dying screams further and further into Sovereigns mind until he found it.

Sovereign had been a hibernating next to a red super giant but while he slumbered the giant went supernova and transformed into a neutron star, Sovereign was catapulted by the into the planet known as Gamma 5 where the artefact was found and buried Sovereign under the earth. Elias jumped back. _"The cave…the shrine…it was you!"_ Elias remembered what doctor Shoester said to him ' _You don't gaze upon it! You are engulfed by it! You were engulfed by his power as you entered his domain. Every step you took you fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, unknowing that you have already devoted yourself to him, you just don't know it yet!'_

" _It makes sense now, the signal jamming, the head aches…"_ Sovereign stepped forward.

" _You have seen too much, you must be purged."_ Elias' head began to burn with intense pain as Sovereign tried to tear him apart from the inside. _"I expected you to be useful, shame…like the rest of your race you don't know when to lie down and die!"_ Elias felt his mind slipping away and that would have been it but everything started to shake, Elias could hear muffled explosions in the background and one large one before he woke up on the med bay floor to the sound of alarms. He looked up to see a massive metal shell where his bed used to be. Elias scrambled to his feet, still dazed but he was finally awake and he had a job to do.


	7. First Contact

Chapter 7: First Contact

Elias scrambled out of the med bay dizzy and confused, crew members were running around calling out orders and getting armed. "Sir! You're awake!" exclaimed one of the crew members as he ran over to him.

"Where's the doc?" asked Elias still struggling to stand straight.

"She was sent to the corvette to give medical advice before the attack sir." an explosion went off near them knocking them over and the hull began to vent the atmosphere.

"Hit the emergency shutters!" ordered Elias to the surviving crew members who immediately responded. Elias could see Taby being pulled from her bed by the ventilation, he ran over and closed cryoseal, she would be in suspended in cryogenic sleep until someone released her from it. This would prevent suffocation or fatal injuries from killing her.

Elias got up and walked over to a nearby crew member who was an engineer. "You! In there, Taby is in that pod. Keep her safe until relief arrives!" the engineer was to terrified to speak but he did manage a nod before he ran over to the med bay. The ship sounded like a drum with thump after thump after thump, Elias tried to make his way to the command deck but he was cut off when the hallway collapsed above them. The pipes had burst, spraying water all over the deck.

"Sir, the enemy ships have destroyed one of the transport vessels!" Major Harrow slammed his fist on his armrest.

"We need reinforcements!" he ordered. "Ahern come in!" Harrow had been attempting to raise Ahern on the Corvette since the start of the attack but there had been no response.

"Reading you." he responded nearly muffled by the sounds of the crew chatter.

"I need you to take the Corvette and head to Arcturus, the second fleet is currently docked there. Tell them to bring the frigate, the carries...tell them to bring EVEYTHING!" ordered Major Harrow.

"Yes sir, I'll take the civilian ships to Shanxi on the way!" Ahern turned to the crew. "Men we're getting reinforcements, round up the survivors and be ready to bug out!" Ahern turned back the screen. "How long can you hold out?" he asked, Major Harrow lowered his head.

"We can only hold this position for an hour at best. We can only give you a head start. The Mother of Invention has chosen to stay behind so we will have capable firepower. Now go!"

"Yes sir." the call was dropped.

"Sir! another colonist ship has been destroyed!" informed one of the pilots.

"Concentrate fire on the cruisers, worry about the dreadnought later." Alliance Frigates were well armed and manoeuvrable, capable of sustained fight but if that Dreadnought got a single shot on target they would be dead in seconds. The Mayfair was able to dodge several shots from the enemy ships but it was still being torn apart.

"Sir a cruiser is breaking off from the group, it trying to chase Ahern!" Major Harrow got onto the coms.

"Roman, destroy that cruiser now!"

"Yes sir! All forward batteries aim for the cruiser breaking off from the group, fire when ready!" the enemy cruiser took heavy damage in the fight but managed to destroy another transport vessel. "FUCK!" yelled Roman.

"Sirs the enemy dreadnought is preparing to fire!" they could see the ship angling itself.

"Roman, move now!"

"We can't sir, Blake and the other scientists aren't on board yet!" informed Roman trying desperately to keep the ship together. "IT'S FIRING!" warned Roman. The dreadnought opened fire on the retreating ships destroying the last transport vessel.

"NOOOOO!" screamed Major Harrow as the debris from the ship littered space, he could see hundred if not thousands of people, all dead now, floating in the void.

"Sirs the enemy Dreadnought is aiming for Ahern's Corvette, according to the heat signature it will be able to fire in eight minutes!"

"Roman! We need stop that ship from firing!" ordered Major Harrow clenching his chair, suppressing the rage he felt for the thousands dead.

"How? Our weapons can't dent that." Major Harrow slammed his fist down on his armrests again, this time managing to crack the frame.

"We need to do SOMETHING!" Roman sat there thinking for a moment trying to figure of how small ships could damage dreadnoughts, but he only knew of one. Roman pulled down the emergency evacuate switch and the ship began to fill with alarms and an automated voice over.

"All hands, abandon ship this is not a drill"

"Roman! What are you doing?" The first escape pod had already launched and began to fly towards the nearest planet.

"Yeah Roman, what are you doing?" questioned Blake as he ran onto the command deck in full EVA gear minus the helmet which he threw on the floor on his way in.

"Blake, take gun control. We're crashing this ship!" Blake didn't even hesitate and jumped in the gunner control.

"Have you lost your fucking mind!?" asked Major Harrow.

"It's decided sir, that corvette needs to reach Arcturus and this is the only way that's happening." Roman began to flip some switches and put the ship in full speed. "Do us a favour and keep those cruisers off us." Major Harrow slowly nodded.

"Pilots get us close to the Mother of Invention, give her some cover." Major Harrow sunk into his chair knowing that he just condemned two of his best men, no…his friends to die.

Elias was trying to reach the bridge through the secondary entrance in the crew quarters but fires had broken out all over the ship blocking several entrances and making it hard to breathe. "Men, find some breathing apparatus we're going to need it."

"The armoury is two corridors down from here sir, they should have some helmets there." Elias nodded.

"Alright, you two head to the armoury and grab as many helmets as you can carry, the rest are with me. Let's see if we can combat these fires. Move out!" the two soldiers ran down the hallway as fast as they could while Elias and the rest went looking for water sources.

"This ship is falling apart!" commented one crewman, coughing as he did so. His name was Jeff if Elias remembered correctly. "Who do you think is doing this?" Elias' mind drew back to the cave, all he could think about is how he has to destroy that thing, _"…but who will I tell? They'll think I'm crazy!"_

"Sir?" asked Jeff tapping on Elias' shoulder jolting him out of his day dream. "Josh and Rick are back with the helmets." Elias nodded and took his helmet, Elias could spot his helmet a mile off because it had a scorch mark on the left side from a pirate raid when he first started his career. He was assisting with some repairs of the ships engines with Corporal Adams when the ship was struck by a raider ship, the shields were up but the mass effect generator couldn't take the sudden spike in energy and discharged, luckily for them that is was running on low power due to the repairs and all they got were scrapes and burns.

The fires were becoming uncontrollable so they had to take drastic measures. "We have to vent the oxygen in this section, starve the fires otherwise we'll lose the ship. We have to find the environmental controls for this deck." Jeff shuffled forward.

"They're in habitation sir!"

"Yeah, habitation…behind that wall of flame." Elias wasn't exaggerating, the oxygen would build up near the bulkhead doors due to errors in the ventilation. "This ship was a death trap before we got attacked." Elias tried to contact the CIC but there was no response.

The Mother of Invention was being torn apart with entire sections coming off but it was still flying forward at full speed being tailed by the remaining cruisers. "Major they're still following us!" major Harrow was now personally manning a gunner seat.

"We _are_ aware of that, they seem to be ignoring us." Major Harrow blew up an enemy fighter when an idea came to him. "All forward batteries, aim for the engines of the closest cruiser, if we can't kill it we can at least slow it down."

"Yes sir! Responded the forward gunners." they released the first salvo which showed physical damage but it was still going fast. "The Mother Invention isn't gonna survive much longer!" with guns reloaded they fired a second salvo destroying the engines but it was still going at full speed.

"Fire the tow cable we need to stop their momentum dead!"

"Sir! The auto-targeting is fucked we need to manually fire." Major Harrow placed his hand over his face with a sigh.

"Can't one thing work on this fucking ship…" he complained to himself. "Transfer manual control to me." he ordered moving over to his command console.

"Transferring now sir, each shot will take ten seconds to reload so be careful not to miss." informed the gunnery chief.

"I know how to fucking shoot Gunny!" snapped Harrow as he took the controls. "Current trajectory?"

"The ship is bearing…5 degrees east at 150kph aim for sector 45.69 and trail for...4 seconds." Major Harrow concentrated hard staring at the screen like he was about to put his face through it.

"Releasing tow cable in 3…2…1!" the cable launched out the chamber and shot through the empty space heading for its target.

"Collision in E-minus 4 seconds…3…2…COLLISION!" called the gunnery chief. The tow cable had lodged itself in the damaged engine.

"Reel it in until it stops or at least slows down but maintain our current speed, we need to stay with the Mother of Invention!"

"Yes sir!" responded the gunner chief, as the ship was being reeled in the engine compartment the cable was attached to ripped off the ship, releasing the tow cable. "Fuck!" exclaimed the gunnery chief. "We lost the connection!" he informed.

"It doesn't matter." reassured Harrow. "It has lost enough momentum we just need to catch up with the rest. Roman, do you read?"

"We're taking a beating over here!" answered Roman, the feed was grainy and rife with loud beeps and muffled explosions but clear enough to understand.

"We have incapacitated one ship and we will work on the other two, how long until collision with the Dreadnaught?" Major Harrow could hear distant sounds of explosions over the com getting louder and louder.

"Good news is that the ship hasn't noticed us yet and is maintaining its position so at this rate we'll crash in E-minus 5 minutes, bad news is that the Corvette isn't at a safe range yet so if that thing fires it will destroy it." there was a loud explosion over the com. "Shit! Blake, get that fire under control!"

"I'm on it!" he responded jumping from his chair and grabbing a fire extinguisher.

"Sir, we need you get these ships off us or we won't make it, I've directed all shields to the rear but if that dreadnought decides that we're a threat we won't be able to raise the forward shields in time."

"We're working on it." responded Harrow. "Pilot, Gunny same again. We can do this!" they began the process of disabling the engines again but this cruiser was aware of what they were doing and turned to face them.

"Shit...we can't go toe to toe with that, sir!" informed the pilot, attempting to dodge the incoming fire. One shot collided with the front of the ship and caused the pilots console to explode sending him flying across the room. "FUCK!" exclaimed Harrow. "Get him to the med bay! Watson, initiate command override. Give me the ship."

"Certainly sir." responded Watson in an excited tone before Harrows console lit up.

"Sir! We can't dent that ship from this angle, the frontal shields are unlike anything we've ever seen, our shots just bounce off." informed the gunnery chief.

"There is a weakness with their shields though, at least I believe there is." alerted Watson.

"How so?" asked Harrow as he banked the ship to the left to dodge an incoming shot.

"My analysis of the ship show that concentrated blasts to the cockpit are more effective and cause the shields to open microscopic gaps, if all the guns were to strike the cockpit at the time of one shot per 0.0056 seconds, the shots would not only penetrate but it would also kill the commanding crew and render the ship inert." Major Harrow pulled the ship back to dodge another shot but it was too late and it collided with the starboard stern making the ship shake.

"Such a shot can only be pulled off by an AI and the auto-targeting system is down ." argued the gunnery chief.

"That is correct, although I have detected the cause of the fault. The fault is caused by power failure in the engine room, if the power were to be restored auto-targeting would begin to function again." responded Watson with a slight grin which was unnerving in this situation.

"Attention all hands this is the Major speaking…" began Harrow before Watson interrupted him.

"The ships intercommunications are currently out of commission sir."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" he sighed. "Vael! Take Greeley and see if you can reach engineering or make contact with someone who can. And take the schematics with you in case you need an alternate route." Corporal Vael saluted.

"Yes sir…"

"There is a time and a fucking place for ceremony Vael!" interrupted Harrow as he dodged another salvo by spinning the ship.

Elias and the men were trying to combat the fires in the Kitchen leading to Habitation before Vael and Greely barged trough the blockage between them and the bridge. "Sir!" exclaimed Vael as he ran over.

"About time, what's going on?" demanded Elias as he threw another load of water over the fires but to no avail.

"We're under attack…" informed Vael.

"No shit Sherlock." responded Elias as he filled up another pan. They had broken off the tap so they could get a constant water flow going. "I mean, WHO is attacking us?" Corporal Vael considered his answer for a few seconds.

"We're waiting!" urged Jeff as he threw another pan of water over the fires but it still made no dent other than a sizzle.

"They're not human…" he responded which made the rest stop in place and stare.

"How do you know?" asked Elias as he dropped the pan on the ground, the water stayed stationary even though the ship was being spun a thrown the artificial gravity prevented them from feeling the movements but from time to time the ship would jutt and shake.

"The technology is more advanced than what any of us have and the design is strange but familiar I can't explain it…" a shot connected with the port side ripping through the kitchen area killing three men including Jeff. The shot had completely eviscerated him leaving only burned scraps behind, corporal Clifford started to scream as he realised his arm was gone. "We need to get to engineering to reactivate the auto targeting system or we're all dead." informed Vael as he tried to ignore what he just saw. Elias nodded holding back the sick as the smell of burning flesh filled his nose. _'fire and blood'_

"We can't get there though, the entrance is blocked by the fire and in a few minutes it will engulf this entire deck." Vael pulled up the schematics on his PDA and projected them into a 3D hologram.

"According to this we can get there down this access shaft through the armoury." he suggested pointing to the shaft.

"That won't work." interjected Rick as he held Clifford down waiting for the tranquillizers to kick in. "The Armoury is mostly collapsed, all me and Josh could reach were the helmets, grenades and side arms." said Rick.

"Wait, grenades?" asked Elias.

"Yeah, concussion and frag." answered Josh as he threw another pan of water on the flames to slow it down.

"Show me, the rest of you try and keep this fire under control or at least slow it down." Vael tapped Elias on the shoulder.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"Back in 2014 a scientist called Dr. Graham Doig used explosives to put out wild fires in Australia, you see, the shock-wave and subsequent rush of air from a controlled explosion knocks the flame from its fuel source. It's like blowing out a very, very big candle." Vael began to chuckle.

"So your plan is to blow us up?" Elias ignored him and headed down the corridor with Rick.

"You're crazy!" yelled Vael before he grabbed a bowl and filled it with water.

The armoury was a mess, a beam had been blown loose which caused the entire aft section of the armoury to collapse completely. It would be impossible to get in if the beam didn't create a crawl space that led to the secure locker. "Rick, I need you to go in there and pass me at least five concussion grenades." Rick nodded and began to crawl but as he got halfway through the beam began to slip and fall, Elias grabbed it and held it up but he wouldn't be able to hold it long. "Rick…quick…get out…NOW!" he ordered struggling to speak.

"I'm nearly there." informed Rick.

"I can't…hold…this…" explained Elias but Rick wasn't listening.

"I'm coming out!" he bellowed but Elias could feel his hands slipping.

"HURRY THE FUCK UP!" he roared as his knees started to wobble.

"Just one more second!" he urged as he crawled out but the ship was hit again making the roof collapse more causing Elias to drop the beam. All he could hear was Rick screaming as he got up to see his leg had been crushed just below the knee.

"Oh shit! oh shit, oh shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" Rick kept screaming as he looked at his leg, Elias took a closer look to see his leg looked like a popped sausage but he knew how to get Rick out of this but he wasn't going to like it. Elias kneeled down next to Rick who was hysterical.

"The…" Elias stifled his sick. "…the leg has been completely crushed…the bone is powder so I can easily…cut it off…" Rick screamed louder. "I'm…sorry." said Elias as he took the knife from his boot. He had done this before but it still wasn't an easy task, as the knife drew closer his hand started to shake so he steadied it with his left hand as he placed underneath. Elias froze for a few seconds taking slow deep breaths before he took one last quick breath and pulled the knife up.

It was quick, like cutting butter. Rick passed out a second later after he screamed himself unconscious. Elias picked Rick up and slung him over his shoulder and headed back to the kitchen as fast as he can. Elias could feel the blood all down his back, warm and wet. "Turn on the hob now!" ordered Elias as he barged through the doors.

"Oh my god…" commented Vael as he saw the blood trail behind them. The hob was a fast electric one so it reached over 100 degrees Celsius in seconds.

"Hold his arms!" Greeley and Josh held his arms while Vael held his remaining leg. "I'm sorry for this too…" said Elias as he lowered Rick's stump onto the hob which made a sizzling sound like you were cooking bacon, another food Elias would never be able to eat again. Rick instantly woke up to thrash and scream before passing out again.

Now that the wound was fully cauterised they pulled him off the hob but some of his skin stayed behind and continued to sizzle which was too much for Elias as he threw off his helmet to puke in a corner. "Oh my god…" he whimpered as he wiped his mouth, the smell of burning flesh manifesting into a putrid taste in his mouth. Elias grabbed the grenades from the floor and tossed them near the fires with and aggressive toss. "EVERYONE GET DOWN!" he ordered diving behind the counter as the room was filled with a loud bang followed by a high pitched ringing. The flames erupted away from the grenade before sucking back in and dying out. "Let's go!" he ordered barely able to hear his own voice over the ringing but the men saw him heading for the door and followed.

The door panel was scorched but still functional, Elias had to use the barrel of his pistol to input the keys as the panel was still hot. "Alright Helmets on, I'm venting everything from this hallway to the engine room, I need a volunteer to stay with the wounded and seal the door behind us."

"I'll do it sir." informed Vael. Elias nodded and entered the hallway, his ears still ringing a little bit but it was nothing major. Elias stood at the environmental controls near the end of the hallway and waited for the rest of the men to enter the hallway before he signalled to Vael to close the door. With the door closed Elias counted down from 3 before venting the direct compartments between them and the engine room.

"All right men, double time it. This ship won't hold out much longer!" ordered Elias as they began to make their way down the hallway towards the 2nd bulkhead.

"Sir the ship is heavily damaged and we have reports of explosions _inside_ the bulkheads!" informed the gunnery chief trying to hold on to his seat as Major Harrow spun the ship around to doge an incoming salvo. The cockpit didn't have inertial dampening so the pilot could move with the ship.

"Don't you think I've noticed that!?" snapped Harrow as he circled around an asteroid to avoid the next salvo. "Roman! Are you still alive?" asked Harrow as he lost sight of the ship.

"Yeah, we're still here, but this ship is going to fall apart in another salvo or two, whatever you're gonna do I suggest you do it now!"

"Watson, what's the status of the repairs?" Watson showed up on screen stood next to the map of the ship.

"My sensors are showing a group of seven moving down the hallways and is currently outside the engine room."

"Can you raise them?" asked Harrow narrowly avoiding an asteroid.

"They are wearing helmet radios, would you like me to patch you in?" Harrow nodded.

"Through this door." ordered Elias as he pried it open.

"This is Major Harrow, can anyone hear me? I repeat can anyone…"

"Elias here." answered Elias as he let go of the doors letting them shut behind him enveloping them in total darkness.

"We need the auto targeting back online now or we'll be nothing but a bitter memory!" informed Harrow. Elias turned on his helmet light along with the rest of the team.

"We're in the engine room now but I need a direction or something…" requested Elias as he moved over to a console only to find out it was dead. "The consoles are down, we'll have to go to analogue but I have no idea where to start."

"Watson?" asked Major Harrow.

"The fault appears to be with the main couplings on the right side of the core, sir. Reconnect the couplings by hand and our power problems should be a thing of the past." Watson may have been a fully intelligent AI but his personality was always cheery in the strangest situations.

"Did you get that?" questioned the Major.

"Couplings…right side, got it…" the ship was stuck but it was from an asteroid rather than a shot, the shock wave tumbled the ship sending the men in the engine room flying. Private Jonas was flung into the reactor and disintegrated after a few seconds of agonising screams. "Will this ever end?" asked Elias in a mournful tone.

 _"Just let go…"_ he said to himself in a voice he didn't recognise before shaking himself awake.

"Sir, I would appreciate it if you kept this ship the right way up WHEN I'M HANDLING A FUCKING ENGINE!" Elias' tone grew more agitated each word he spoke until it developed into a rage filled shout.

"I'm sorry! They have targeting lock and I can't see everything at once, just do your job and I'll do mine!" was the Major's reply before he cut communications.

Elias moved over to the couplings before he stopped in place. _"Why should I help them…"_ he asked himself while starring at the sparking couplings.

"Sir?" asked one of the men.

"Just…surveying the damage." he answered before he went over to fix it, all he had to do was push the coupling back in but it was hard to shift, impossible even.

 _"This is futile…"_ Elias looked around the room for something to help him before he spied the tool box next to it. A crowbar was also lying next to the coupling with a screwdriver lying next to it.

"Sabotage…" he muttered.

"Excuse me sir?" asked a terrified recruit.

"This was sabotage. Get in the com with the Major and tell him what we found, the rest…we need to push."

"Are you sure?" asked Major Harrow upon receiving the news, trying to process who would do such a thing.

"Major Harrow sir! I have targeting again, would you be so kind?" informed Watson.

"Oh, and the ship's intercom is active again." he added. Major Harrow wiped the sweat from his forehead and hands before he started a ship wide broadcast.

"All hands, we're about to pull a 180 degree turn and charge our attackers, hold onto something that is bolted down because this is going to get…interesting." informed Harrow as he pulled the ship around by preforming a Immelmann turn or Half-loop as it was commonly referred to. The enemy ship continued to head straight for the Mayfair firing as they did so. The Mayfair was rattling like a drum but the shields held off the bombardment barring a few shots. "Watson!?"

"Continue this course for a few more meters, we need to get close for this little gift of ours." answered Watson with an unnerving smile on his face.

"Not the time!" snapped Harrow. The targeting solution was in place but they needed to be close to prevent the shots from spreading too far.

"Hold this position for 5…4…3…2…1…Firing all forward cannons." Watson didn't need to say that but he had a flair for the dramatic. All 8 forward cannons fired with a spread of 0.46666 degrees between them, an acceptable margin. Major Harrow pulled the ship up to avoid the back blast as the ship exploded throughout the inner hull but they were too close and the rear engine collided with the bridge disabling the fourth fusion torch.

"SHIT!" yelled the damage control officer.

"Issue?" asked Harrow as he turned to chase after the Mother of Invention.

"We've lost torch 4, we're only running at 75% speed, we won't get away if the next ship turns to face us sir."

"We'll worry about that when it comes to it." snapped Harrow as he broke free from the asteroid field to see the Mother of Invention still alive. "Richard, this is…" started Harrow before Blake interrupted him.

"We know who this bloody is, help us. We redirected all power from life support to escape pods to our shields but that Dreadnought is turning to face us so we need to ditch the shields and increase the speed of this shit bucket!"

"Don't worry Blake, we're coming!" informed Harrow as he rocketed the ship forward to take down the Cruiser.


	8. Head On

Chapter 8: Head on

"What the fuck was that!?" asked Elias as he scrambled off the ground.

"Something hit us?" responded one of the men trying to pull debris off another soldier. The ship had been in combat for a total of 15 minutes and the ship was practically dead, being held together by nothing but the determination of the crew to keep it flying.

"I have to get to the CIC, the rest of you see if you can keep this ship flying for a few more minutes." the men saluted.

"Yes sir!" before they began to scramble, looking for tools or spare parts for basic repairs. Elias made his way out of the engine room and headed for the CIC.

The hallways were lit up now and the life support had been remotely reactivated but Elias had kept his helmet firmly on, not trusting the illusion of safety was one of the main reasons he was still alive. _"Let me in…"_ came a whisper behind Elias' ears making him spin on his heel, heavy pistol in hand but there was no one there.

"Let me out for fuck sake!" came a voice from the door next to him followed by repeated banging. "Hello? Anyone there?" the voice continued. Elias took a deep breath and opened the door aiming at who was on the other side only to find Richard standing there looking back at him with a blank look on his face. Elias felt his arm twitch.

"Oh, Elias…" he looked down the barrel in front of his face maintaining his blank expression. "You're not going to shoot me are you?" he asked with a smirk, Elias put his gun away and carried on towards the CIC. "Are you alright? You look like shit." asked Richard as he followed Elias down the hall.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just gave me a scare that's all." Richard responded with a quick 'ha!' before the ship was struck again knocking them over.

"Sir, the enemy fighters are hitting some vital modules. I don't think we'll hold together much longer." the damage control officer was voicing his concerns but he was largely ignored by Major Harrow, his only concern was the Mother of Invention.

"Gunny, how long until the Dreadnought can fire?"

"Well if Watson's estimate is correct…" started the Gunnery Chief before he was interrupted by Watson.

"… _It_ is, and that gun will fire in approximately 1 minute." Harrow opened up com line with Roman.

"Roman, we have the attention of the last Cruiser but that ship will fire in less than a minute, we need you to hurry up."

"We'll redirect power from the shields to the engines. You have to keep those ships off us because this ship is a violent sneeze away from becoming scrap." answered Roman in a surprisingly calm tone.

"Major, sir?" asked Blake.

"Go ahead." replied Harrow.

"I've got an idea but I'll need the help of the Mayfair." Major Harrow sat back in his chair, he had relinquished flight control to Watson after he was properly brought back online.

"Let's hear it." he responded, not liking where this is going.

"I've tried rigging the drive core to explode when we make contact with the dreadnought but the engine bay is…uhhh...unavailable right now." Blake stared at what used to be the deck B corridor but was now a void to space.

"And you need me to…"

"Shoot it." Harrow knew he wasn't going to like this.

"You'll need to drop the internal shields before impact, which means no air." Harrow slumped a little lower in his chair, the weight of this day was just dragging him down.

"It'll be done." came Blake's reply before he dropped the transmission. Harrow put his hand over his face followed with a sigh.

"Fuck this day…" he muttered before Elias and Richard entered the CIC.

"Sorry we're late." joked Richard as he stood in the door way, arms crossed.

"You alright sir?" asked Elias while he brushed passed Richard

"It's nothing..." replied Harrow in a less than convincing tone.

"Sir, we will be in range of the final cruiser in a moment." informed the gunnery chief.

"Watson, return the flight controls to me."

"Sir, not to disrespect but, my skills are better suited for the task of..."

"Do it." interrupted arrow with a stern tone.

"Yes sir." came Watson's reply which had a mocking tone to it.

"Do you need us to do anything?" asked Elias.

"Just shut up and watch." answered Harrow as he took control of the ship.

"Sir…the enemy ship is…"

"I can see that." answered Harrow as he prepared evasive manoeuvres, The enemy cruiser had redirected towards The Mayfair leaving the Mother of Invention on its own. "Roman, you're clear for now, I suggest getting a move on before that changes." ordered Harrow as he forced the ship into a spin to avoid the incoming fire.

"Roger that, we're Oscar Mike!" responded Roman as he redirected power from the shields to the engines for an extra burst of speed, meanwhile the enemy ship was darting towards the Mayfair at an alarming rate.

"Uhh…Major?"

"What is it Watson!?" responded Harrow gritting his teeth as he pulled a turn that nearly split the ship in two.

"The enemy ship coming in fast, really fast!" Harrow looked at the scanner to see the green blip get closer and closer, no matter what harrow did he couldn't shake it.

"Sir! They have lock on!" warned the Gunnery Chief.

"Watson, advise!" ordered Harrow as a beeping sound filled the cockpit.

"There's nothing we can do! He's too close, we can't manoeuvre and we have no more defensive cannons!" the beeping was getting faster with each second.

"I want all non-essential power diverted to rear shields!"

"It won't…" started Watson before he was cut off by Harrow.

"NOW!" barked Harrow as the beeping was so fast now it was turning into background noise.

"Power diverted!" informed Watson. The beeping getting faster and faster until it evolved into a slow and steady tone.

"Flat line…" remarked Watson before the ship was struck, shaking the entire hull from the impact.

"Damage report." requested Harrow.

"The 2nd engine exploded and engines 1 and 4 are down! We're sitting ducks!" informed the damage control officer. Elias approached the window, watching the ship as it slowed down and took position above the Mayfair.

"We're being boarded!" yelled Elias as he grabbed his rifle and headed for A deck just behind the bridge with Richard following after him.

"All hands, this is Major Harrow, we're being boarded, I repeat we're being boarded, this is not a drill." warned Harrow via ship wide communication.

For a moment, all was silent besides the sound of the ship creaking a little bit. "Where are they?" whispered a marine who kept shuffling on the spot.

"Shh…quiet!" ordered Elias. There was a loud thud on the outer hull followed by a very quiet hissing sound.

"What's that?" asked a soldier as he moved towards it.

"GET BACK!" ordered Elias before the hull exploded open, the pressure of the explosion caused them to go deaf and disorientated, hearing only a high pitched noise Elias tried to rely on his sight but the world around him was spinning. When it cleared up he could see flashes of light as bullets flew over his head before he was dragged behind cover by Richard.

"Hey, are you switched on!?" asked Richard tapping on Elias' visor, Elias nodded before he scrambled into a crouch behind the table they were taking cover behind.

 _"Cycle…"_ Elias checked his weapon only to find he had dropped it.

"I'm naked!" he yelled over the gunfire.

"Here!" responded Richard handing Elias his side arm. Elias poked his head over the cover to see what was going on only to be met with a hail of gunfire that luckily deflected of his helmet.

"Holy fuck!" he muttered before returning fire. "Major, we've been boarded! I repeat, we have hostile forces _in_ the ship. Deck A hallway 1."

"Acknowledged. Watson?" Watson flickered up on the display. "I need you to provide tactical support to Elias and his men." Watson saluted before flickering off.

"Corporal, I have scanned the ship and we have twenty hostiles on the ship. Four of which are engaging you now."

"Only four? It feels like an entire battalion down here." responded Elias as he reloaded his pistol.

"I've managed to access their coms, they don't seem to be prepared for AI intrusions." After the white noise had subsided all Elias could hear were random noises but they were recognisable from something he's heard before. "Is that…"

"Latin. Or at least a form of it." responded Watson.

"How?" asked Elias.

"Maybe you should be more concerned with the bullets than the language at this moment in time!" interrupted Richard as he tapped Elias on the back of the helmet with his rifle.

"Watson, can you translate it?"

"It's possible but I need context or access to an alphabet. I'll check their ship, the security on that thing is abysmal." Watson had no physical body to speak of but Elias could always tell when he was gone, he always felt alone for some reason when he left but this time Elias didn't feel alone with his thoughts. He felt crowded.

"Elias!?" urged Richard as he ducked down to avoid a stream of bullets coming in, peppering the wall behind them. Elias remembered that he had some concussion grenades left, he grabbed one and turned to Richard.

"I have a plan!" He couldn't see his face but he could tell Richard was smiling as he took one of the grenades.

"Headache out!" Richard called as he threw his grenade from behind cover which was met with an audible noise from the creatures before the halls began to ring with the sound of an explosion. Elias wasted no time and launched himself over the table firing of rounds into the creatures.

They seemed to have personal shields not unlike the ones used by the ship which Elias remembered were vulnerable to close proximity attacks so Elias took the barrel of his gun to what looked like the head of the creature, which was firing of blindly all over the place, and blew its head wide open. Richard had done the same but it was to the chest with a shotgun but the last one was regaining its sight to see it was now alone. It threw its weapon at Richard knocking him back and turned to face Elias.

Elias tried to shoot it but it battered the gun out of his hands and adopted a fighting stance the closely resembled the stance of a boxer with its arms in front of its head to seemingly block attacks. Elias was the best hand to hand combatant on the ship, he the best reach anyway but this creature seemed to have flexibility as he threw punch after punch only to hit air. The creature tried to retaliate but Elias was too far away for any of its punches to connect. The creature let out an angered roar before it ploughed into Elias, tackling him to the ground and was about to bash his head in if Richard didn't kick it as hard as he could in the head knocking it over.

It took a few seconds for Elias to get back up but by that time Richard was being thrown around like a rag doll prompting Elias to join the fight again. Elias led with a kick aided by a jump which now put the creature on the defensive, attempting to block Elias' attacks but Elias was too fast landing one hit for every two blocked. The creature began to adapt to the attacks and instead opted to dodge and sidestepped Elias landing a right hook to his chin knocking his helmet off and dazing him.

Before the creature could take advantage of the opening, Richard whacked it over the head with a fire extinguisher and began to spray it all over the creature. "Do you like that!? Huh!?" Elias took the opportunity to pick up a nearby weapon which belonged to the creature.

It seemed almost identical to human weaponry looking like a plastic plated shotgun, Elias pulled the trigger but the weapon started to beep and heat up in his hand. "Ahhh…FUCK IT!" yelled Elias as he charged forward and whacked the creature over the head which caused it to drop to its knees. Richard followed with another strike from the extinguisher and they repeated it until the creature fell to the ground unmoving, its helmet had been smashed open to reveal a face not too different to a human but with what appeared to be mandibles on its cheeks.

Elias took a step back and threw the overheating shotgun to the ground, sweat rolling down his face. Richard picked up his rifle and stormed over to the creature and before Elias could say anything Richard said; "You're one ugly mudda-fucker…" and shot it in the head spraying a blue-ish liquid all over their faces.

"Did you just quote Arnold Schwarzenegger?" asked Elias while he was trying to wipe it off.

"Maybe…" he replied before he put his rifle away and began to investigate the dead alien. "They have massive collars…don't they?" he grunted while trying to rip the breastplate off.

"Do you want to be doing that?" asked Elias as he rubbed his jaw, still feeling the impact from a punch that would've taken his head off if he wasn't wearing that helmet.

"I'm pretty sure I…" Richard was flung back by his own force when he removed the breastplate and tumbled behind the table.

"You all right?" mumbled Elias in a less than caring tone. Richard threw up his middle finger. "Charming…" replied Elias as he waltzed over to the corpse. Is this thing wearing two sets of armour?" the alien had a metal exoskeleton under its armour which took most of the damage of the fight. Richard was back on his feet again and was walking over to Elias before he heard a noise down the hallway, Richard readied his rifle in a flash.

"Elias..." he whispered, nodding in the direction of the noise. "Watson? You there?"

"I am now sir." answered Watson in a smug tone.

"How many tangos are on the ship?" asked Richard, kneeling next to the bulkhead still training his sight down the hallway. He picked up Elias' helmet and rolled it over to him.

"Seeing as you took out the four engaging you there should be 16 left."

"Four!?" realised Elias trying to find his weapon. "Rich. There's only three here…" Richard peered over his shoulder and slowly scanned the room looking for the slightest movement. "Watson…can you find him?" whispered Elias as he pried a rifle from a dead soldier.

"I'm not connected to the ship presently, so...no. If I were a betting entity, I would guess he would be nearby."

"He?" questioned Richard as he slowly walked over to Elias, still scanning the room for something. Anything.

"I managed to pull and translate some info from the Turian ship. It appears that the tech they used is based on Prothean's as well as ours. The main bulk of the military is male, so it's most likely...it actually seems like they adopted a Roman-esque structure..." Elias checked the clip to find it was half empty.

"12 shots." he whispered to Richard. "Wait…Turion?"

"No, Turian. Tur…ri…ann" answered Watson.

"What he is trying to say is, how do you know crab face's species name?" interrupted Richard, passing Elias a spare clip.

"The native language is very similar to Latin, very, very similar in fact…" Elias could tell he was gone again but somehow his head still felt...crowded.

"Rich." Elias whispered, Richard looked over to see Elias gesturing down the hallway. They slowly paced towards the passage with their finger gripping the trigger tightly. "Keep your eyes open." advised Elias, still in a hushed tone.

"Uhh…Elias…" called Richard.

"Quiet." Elias answered checking his corners.

"Elias!" he called louder. Elias turned to see Richard with a knife held to his throat by the Turian.

"God damn it Rich!" sighed Elias as he lined up a shot. "Hands up!"

"Are you seriously trying to talk to it?" The Turian pulled Richards arm causing him to groan in pain.

"Watson?"

"Here." answered Watson who sounded distracted.

"I need you to translate. Do you think you can do that?" Watson didn't have a face but Elias could almost picture the facial expression he would be pulling. A cocky smile.

"I guess we'll find out." Elias kept his rifle pointed straight at the Turians face. "What do you want me to say?" asked Watson who could barely contain his excitement.

"Tell him to put his weapon down."

"That one is a female…" informed Watson.

"I don't give a shit!" interrupted Richard which made the Turian twist his arm even more. "All right, all right!" Watson translated and relayed Elias' words to the Turian over the PA which sounded like a bunch of made up gibberish, but then again Elias didn't know the first thing about Latin. The Turian responded with what could only be described as a laugh which made Elias even more on edge.

"Watson?"

"She can understand you." He answered.

"How?" asked Elias not taking his eyes off the Turian.

"Same way you can, she has a VI. It appears that they don't take kindly to AI's, which means we have the upper hand here."

"In that case then, hey! Alien woman…you're a cunt!" blurted Richard. She twisted his arm even more.

"Let, him, go." Elias adopted a low growl to his voice to intimidate the Turian. She responded with a mess of sounds so Elias had to wait for the translation.

"She said 'you don't scare me. Put down your weapon or I kill your subordinate!' Cheery."

"Subordinate!?" questioned Richard. Elias would normally chuckle but now was not the time. _Kill her._ His fingers began to twitch.

"What do you want?" The Turian didn't reply. _Do it._ "Answer me!" demanded Elias. There was still no reply. _Fuck this!_ "Hey Rich?"

"Yeah?" he answered in a pained groan.

"Remember your older brother? How did you say goodbye to him again?" Richard nodded and leaned forward then pulled back with all his strength, unleashing a powerful head-butt that dazed the Turian long enough for Elias to shoot her shoulder making her drop Richard. Elias went to shoot again be she out stretched her hand and flung a vortex of purple energy at him. Elias couldn't believe his eyes. He dodged out the way but it hit the hull behind him, effectively disintegrating the wall.

"What the…" started Elias before the air began to vent and he was pulled out into space.

"ELIAS!" called Richard who now has to stand face to face with this Turian female. "You bitch! You fucking bitch!" he screamed as he charged forward with fury in his eyes and his knife in his hand.


	9. Attrition

Chapter 9: Attrition

 _"Your species will fall…"_ came a voice from echoing from the dark.

 _"Why?"_ asked Elias as he drifted through the harrowing blackness, falling through the shadows.

 _"We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."_ Elias couldn't find the voice; he couldn't see his own hands.

 _"This isn't real…"_ he concluded. " _I'm just losing my mind."_ There was only silence. The silence was deafening.

 _"Your mind is not yours to lose."_

Elias opened his eyes to see the Mayfair hanging over him, _"The destruction seems so minimal from out here…OUT HERE!"_ Elias realised where he was as he began checking his suit for any punctures or damages. "May day! May day! This is Corporal Elias Everest of the SSV Mayfair, I have been vented into space and request immediate assistance!" there was only silence. "Is anyone there!?" as Elias drifted he felt something brush past his shoulder, he turned to find nothing but the empty void staring back at him. Elias checked his oxygen levels. _"20%...that would give me at least 10 minutes…_ _ **shit!**_ _"_ Elias began to see if there was anything he could use but all he found nearby was scrap from the ship. None of them were large enough or close enough for him to push off so he tried the radio again. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Elias Everest of the SSV Mayfair…"

"Elias!" came Harrow's faint reply.

"Hello?" the radio was crackling loudly in his ear.

"Elias, we can't reach you. We've lost the ship. We're trapped in the CIC, they'll be in the door any moment now." Elias collided with some debris and gently bounced off.

"I only have enough oxygen for less than 10 minutes, I need something just some sort of momentum to get me moving and I'll let Sir Isaac Newton do the rest." reasoned Elias.

"I'll see what we can do." replied Harrow.

"Watson?" Watson's avatar flickered up on the display.

"Sir. How may I be of service?" his avatar was flickering like a candle in the wind.

"Can you get Elias?"

"I think I can…" responded Watson before he flickered off. "Elias, can you read me?" Elias has been floating in silence for a few minutes now, the only thing he could hear were whispers in the back of his mind. He was surprisingly happy to hear Watson despite his annoying tone.

"I read ya." he responded with a sigh.

"I think I have a way to get you back but there's a problem…" Elias would've sighed again but he didn't have the oxygen to waste.

"What is it?"

"I'll need to use an escape pod from the Turian ship, they have a better grasp of ME generators than we do, so I can remotely direct the pod to you. The catch is that the Turian CIC will override my control and return the pod so I hope you're armed." Elias still had a knife and a single grenade, he didn't like his chances but it was a better option than suffocating to death.

The pod was shaped like a submarine missile, so much so that Elias thought it was a missile before it slowed down to a stop next to him. The inside was more cramped than an Alliance pod but it was more heavily armoured, it was reminiscent of the drop pods the Alliance used on planets that were hard to reach. Such devices are disused now due to the high mortality rate of said drops and difficulty in asset retrieval. "I've lost control of the pod, the Turians are pulling you in." Elias pulled out his knife and pressed his feet against the back wall, ready to pounce.

"Watson, where do I stab for maximum effect?"

"According to the medical databases, the most damaging regions are the head via the eyes and the throat. The throat is your best bet, the large collar leaves a lot of flexible material for movement." Elias took in this information and ran it over his mind over and over again, committing it to muscle memory. The pod came to a violent stop which bounced Elias around a little bit but he was still balanced. "They have four armed guards outside the pod. I've locked the electronic door controls so they'll have to manually open it but that's all I can do."

"Let's hope it's enough…" muttered Elias. The door began to creak as the Turians tried to force the door.

"Remember, Turians are biologically stronger than humans. If you can, avoid direct tests of strength." before Elias could comment the door flung open. Before the light even touched his face Elias was charging out the door. Elias had his knife against the Turians throat which gave the others pause. They began to split up and surround Elias. The third Turian had a shot and was about to take it before he heard a clunk on the ground. Elias found the situation funny enough to laugh before the grenade went off.

Elias had been hit with so many concussion grenades in this day alone he was surprised he didn't have tinnitus. The Turians weren't so prepared however as they began to feel around in blindness. _No mercy._ Elias cut the first Turians throat, its muscles tightened up causing his gun to fire. Before he hit the ground Elias grabbed his weapon and fired point blank range at the second Turian taking off his head. The recoil nearly dislocated Elias' shoulder off but he recovered quickly enough to shoot the third Turian, the shot struck the chest but it still killed the Turian dead. Elias was never really a fan of shotguns but this alien stuff was powerful. He went for the final shot but the gun began to beep in his hand. "Shit!" he yelled before throwing it at the final Turian before running over and cutting its throat, the blood spurted over Elias' visor, Elias felt a light tap against his helmet.

After he wiped the blood off his visor he saw a small device on the ground, it was no bigger than a fingernail. He picked it up after he picked up another rifle. "Watson, what is this?"

"Hold it up to your helmet so I can scan it." Elias did what he was told. "It appears to be some sort of subdermal translation unit that is implanted into the hosts Larynx that translates your words and relays them in the translated form." Elias flipped it over to see there was a socket on the side.

"It looks like it plugs into something…" remarked Elias.

"That would most likely connect to the language centres of the brain, most namely the Broca's and Wernicke's areas to aid in translation."

"The Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the Larynx are all part of the human anatomy." argued Elias as he slowly made his way down the tight hallway. If he were to run into a Turian Elias would have nowhere to go.

"I'm using human terms to make it easier for you to understand. Biological files I have pulled from the ships medical documents show that, when compared to our medical documents, there are many similarities between our species. The formation of speech, for example, goes through the same process as a human." Elias found what appeared to be living quarters. As Elias made his way through the ship he found it strange that he hasn't seen another Turian. "Will it work on me then?" He asked.

"No."

"Well that was abrupt." commented Elias, making his way out of the room.

"The Turians are a Dextro-amino acid based species. Put simply, it would kill you." Elias positioned himself near a doorway.

"Nice…" he muttered as he reached for the control panel.

"I wouldn't do that." interrupted Watson making Elias retract his hand.

"Let me guess, Turians…"

"Yeah, you might want to back away as well." Elias turned around and jogged down the hallway. "Left door." informed Watson as he opened the door for Elias. "Sir. I think I can help you with the translation issue." Watson lead Elias into a storage closet of sorts and closed the door, he was enveloped in darkness. Whenever Elias was in a dark area lately Elias could feel something over his shoulder.

"Go on."

he responded. "I can upload a modified version of the VI into your comms unit, there will be a translation delay and you will have to hear the words translated into your ear but…"

"…It's better than nothing." finished Elias. "Do it." Elias heard a slight buzzing sound as the VI was uploaded.

"Sir, the Turians have found the bodies."

"I'm surprised it took so long." remarked Elias.

"I've been messing with their communications and recording devices, also you're clear to go."

"Nice." Elias opened the door. "Now what?" he asked, checking the alien rifle. Elias believed that he had a grasp on how it works now.

"The path to the Mayfair is on this floor, head down this corridor. I'll open the appropriate doors." Elias nodded and headed down the hallway checking his corners as he did so. "You know that's not necessary right?" Elias carried on.

"It makes me feel better. How is that you're in the system anyway, don't they have defences or something?"

"The only defence this ship has is a VI which was no match for me. The best thing about being an AI is that I can...think outside the box. So to speak." Elias passed a window and saw the Mayfair next to them.

"How are they holding up?" he asked afraid of the answer. "The cockpit is locked down but the rest of the ship is unprotected. Active life signs have dropped to 8 people which is a 82% loss of life."

"Jesus…" muttered Elias. "Major Harrow! This is Roman, The dreadnought fired but we managed to redirect an asteroid to take the brunt of it but it still slowed us down. We should collide with the dreadnought in E-minus 3 minutes, I repeat, E-minus 3 minutes. How soon can you fire?" there was a pause before Harrow responded.

"Negative, we can't. We have lost firing control. Pretty soon we'll lose the Mayfair." Elias could see the Mother of Invention off in the distance, even with no one firing on it debris was still crumbling off.

"Without a core detonation all we will do is slow it down." Elias started to think of alternatives solutions.

"That will have to do…" responded Harrow, Elias could hear a banging noise in the background.

"I got it…" mumbled Elias. "This is Elias Everest to Major Harrow and Sergeant Roman aboard the enemy cruiser currently docked above the SSV Mayfair, are you reading me?"

"How did you…" started Roman.

"Now's not the time, Roman continue your current plan. I'll use this ships canons." The was a brief silence.

"Fuck it…go for it. You have less than 3 minutes Elias, step to it. Harrow out." Elias just realised he didn't figure out exactly how he was going to do it.

"Uhh…Watson, can you do it remotely?"

"No, access to weapons and other vital controls are manual input. All I can do is access non-essential systems such as doors. It's most likely a defence against a Cyber-attack." Elias let out a sigh.

"Direct me to weapons control then, I'll do it manually."

"But, sir…"

"Now Watson." Elias' map updated to show him the directions. "How many between me and the CIC?" Asked Elias.

"Follow the route I gave you and you should run into minimal, if no resistance. Inside the CIC however, there are a total of six. Three pilots, two guards and the Captain." Elias began running down the corridors hoping he didn't run into anyone. "I must warn you that Turians are a military race, even the pilots wear combat armour. Headshots are key, they may be equipped for battle but they're not wearing helmets."

"Six is a lot, any idea how to even the odds?" Elias made it to a set of stairs.

"I have an idea, but it's risky…"

"Good thing Risky is my middle name...well it's not actually it Conner but you...uh...you were saying." Elias always wanted to say something like that, now he wished he hadn't.

"If you overload the heat coil past the acceptable levels, it should cause the ME generator to explode. The explosion is rather small but it will create a localised EMP, disabling active electronics such as weapons and shields." Elias stopped and checked the rifle he was holding.

"I'll have no weapon either though." reasoned Elias.

"You have a knife." Elias remembered the knife he has fixed to his left wrist for emergencies. "This is going to be…messy. Shame I'll have to miss it."

"Why?" asked Elias.

"The EMP will knock out all active electronics such as shields and cameras, your coms will still work provided they remain off but for the most part I will be blind. You'll be on your own." _not alone._

"Great…" Elias approached the door to the CIC. "All right Watson, how do I mess this gun up?"

"You should see a latch near the barrel, pry it open and remove the vent and stuff something in there, like a cloth." Elias was trying to figure out where he was going to get a cloth from.

"Would hair work?" he asked.

"I don't see why not. The air is breathable by the way." Watson already figured out what Elias was going to do. He took his helmet off but waited a few seconds before taking a breath, the air had a stale taste to it.

"I love my hair…" he breathed before cutting off a clump with his knife, the cutting sound almost sounded mechanical. Elias packed the hair into the vent and closed it up. "Now what?" he asked putting his helmet back on.

"Shoot someone." Elias sighed.

"The idea is that I use this to surprise them, not run in a broadcast myself before throwing my weapon like an ape throwing shit." There was no response. "Fine…tell me where they are."

"When the door opens the two guards are on both sides right next to it. If you're fast you can get a shot at close range and bypass their shields. The weapon you are holding is a high powered shotgun, massive damage but equally massive kickback. Normally it would take three shots to overheat it but the lack of pre-venting has reduced that to two. You will have five seconds before detonation when it's overheated. Good luck." Elias planted himself against the door frame and took a deep breath.

"Today has been nothing but an endless cycle of shit…" he breathed. _cycle._

Watson opened the door. Elias was through before it fully opened. _"One Mississippi…"_ Elias placed the barrel in the right Turian's face.

"… _Two Mississippi…"_ he pulled the trigger, the Turian's face exploded against the nearby wall while the gun pushed back. Elias let it happen, twisting around with the gun in a full 180 degree turn.

"… _Three Mississippi…"_ the second Turian was just turning to face Elias but the barrel was already on course towards the second guard's face.

"… _Four Mississippi…"_ he pulled the trigger, this shot was a little off resulting in only half of the Turian's being blown off but it was enough. The pilots were scrabbling out of their chairs and the Captain was charging at Elias, Elias could see an orange light erupting from his wrist.

"… _Five Mississippi…"_ The shotgun began to beep as it heated up in Elias' hands. The Turian Captain's wrist sprouted a blade of some sort as he continued the charge. The pilots were reaching for their side-arms.

"… _Six Mississippi…"_ Elias deflected the wrist blade with the rifle knocking the Turian Captain off balance. The pilots were raising their side-arms, they seemed to be unfolding.

"… _Seven Mississippi…"_ Elias followed up his deflection with a kick to the Captain's leg which sent him stumbling to the ground. The first pilot took a shot but it missed Elias by mere inches.

"… _Eight Mississippi…"_ The heat from the rifle was extreme. Elias ducked and began rolling to the right away from the Turian Captain. The second pilot took as shot followed immediately by the third, the first shot hit where Elias used to be, the second deflected off his shoulder pad.

"… _Nine Mississippi…"_ Elias threw the rifle mid roll. The second pilot put his hands up to catch it, unaware of the impending explosion. The Captain was almost back on his feet and the first pilot took another shot, it went through Elias' left hand which was still outstretched.

"… _Ten Mississippi…"_ Elias hit the ground ungracefully which winded him. The Captain was now on his feet and heading towards Elias brandishing his blade, Elias could see he had a side-arm but he wasn't using for some reason. The second pilot caught the rifle but before he could realise what was happening it exploded.

The Turian holding the rifle was liquidated on detonation, the other two weren't so lucky, the 1st pilot was shredded by shrapnel consisting of rifle parts and bone. The 3rd pilot was sent flying into the nearby hull, his arm fell in his lap, severed at above the elbow. The Captain was shocked by what he saw and froze on the spot, he may have been an alien but the look of shock was universal. Elias himself couldn't believe the carnage he just witnessed.

The Captain looked at Elias who had just scrambled to his feet, rage filled his eyes. Elias could almost see the image in the Captain's eyes where he was imagining ripping him apart. At the flick of his wrist the blade extended once more. _"Of course_ _ **that**_ _still works…"_ He gestured towards Elias knife without breaking eye contact. "I don't know if you understand the concept of honour. I don't know if you can understand me…but for the grave crimes you have committed this day, I WILL kill you slowly. Ready yourself creature for you are about to face a true warrior of the Turian 5th scout corps."

"I understand you Turian…" remarked Elias. "…but in retrospect, you brought this on yourself!" Elias pulled the knife from his wrist sheath and charged forward in the same motion, it seemed like the Turian Captain anticipated this and dodged the swipe retaliating with an attempted stab at Elias' ribs but was deflected by Elias' left hand, Elias roared in pain as he did so. The surviving pilot reached for his pistol, he was losing his vision from blood loss. The pistol didn't fire, he checked it to see that the Mass Effect generator had drained from the explosion so he resulted in throwing it instead. He was too weak to throw it far and Elias didn't even notice him before he passed out.

Elias and the Captain has started to circle each other now, anticipating each other's move like a deadly game of chess. "What even are you creature?" asked the Turian with a snarl before attempting another strike from overhead, Elias ducked under it and stabbed at the stomach. the blade bounced off the chest plate with a raking noise.

"First contact scenarios of a hostile nature dictate that I can't tell you shit." The Captain seemed confused by the phrase.

"Why would I want to know about how your species defecate?" Elias sighed in frustration.

"Idioms…Every. Fucking. Time… Look, it means I won't tell you..." The Turian took another stab but misjudged the distance and would have caught a blade to the throat if his mandibles didn't block Elias' swipe. There was an audible crack and the Captain recoiled in pain, Elias tried to capitalise on the sudden advantage but got slashed across the chest when the Captain swung his arm blindly. "...anything...ow."

They both began circling each other again when Elias saw the Mother of Invention off in the distance closing in on the Dreadnaught. "How close?" whispered Elias.

"They are less than a minute away." answered Watson. The Turian Captain continued to stare directly into Elias' eyes, it was the only thing visible through his visor. Elias was running out of time. Elias charged forward with a swipe which the Captain dodged but Elias continued the movement into a shoulder barge forcing the Captain onto the defence. The Captain lashed out with a stab towards Elias' chest but Elias sidestepped it and stabbed the Captain in the lower chest, Elias managed to get his blade into a joint in the armour.

This didn't seem to bother Captain who grabbed Elias' arm and head-butted him, dazing Elias but it didn't matter, Elias had hooked his foot around the Captain's leg and tripped him up as he was staggering back. Elias was upon him in a second trying to grab his knife back, as Elias reached towards it the Captain pulled Elias in, punched him in the gut and threw him in one movement. Elias remembered that Turians were physically stronger but it didn't matter because this fight was over. "You are weak, and now you are disarmed. Surrender and I will end you honourably." boasted the Captain. Elias was lying face down.

"I wouldn't bet on that." he commented before he rolled over with a pistol in his hands. "You lost something." he remark with a grin before he shot the Captain in the face, the bullet went through the left eye and out the back of his head, the Captain dropped to his knees but he still wasn't dead and began making gurgling noises. "Oh come on!" complained Elias as he placed a bullet between his eyes, his head whipped back followed by his body, hitting the ground with a thud. The hull behind him coated in a slush of blue.

Elias tried to take a step forward but his gut began to hurt, Elias looked down to see that he had been stabbed. "Son of a bitch…" he breathed. "Watson, check suit diagnostics." a 3D image of Elias' body appeared on his HUD. "I need to lose weight." the scan showed that Elias had major damage to his left hand, a large but superficial gash across his chest, signs of mental stress and that been stabbed in the right kidney by a long blade. "That's okay, I have another one…" he joked.

"Though that was supposed to be a joke, you are right. As long as you stop the bleeding you should be fine. I can calibrate the suit seals to clamp the affected area to slow it down."

"I never knew you could do that." Elias felt his chest plate get tighter.

"Neither did I, these Turians seem to have VIs in every suit of armour for such calculations. Such a thing is impossible for our current VI technology but as you know, I'm not a VI." Elias moved over to the consoles which were still functional.

"They're shielded." answered Watson before Elias could even ask. It was like he knew what he was thinking.

"Which one is gun control?"

"The one in the centre." Elias sat down at the console with a groan.

"How do I do this then?" he asked finding it hard to get comfortable in the seat.

"If you allow me access to the rest of the ship's systems I can do it for you. I'll also translate the controls into English for you, this ship is rather similar to the controls on an M29 Grizzly." Elias stared at the console unable to decipher the images on the keyboard.

"Uhh...A little help?" he asked sarcastically.

"Enter the keys you see on your HUD." When Elias finished entering the keys the consoles shut down.

"What…?" before Elias could panic, the consoles reactivated again.

"Just a reboot." informed Watson. Elias got up from the chair. "Don't leave the CIC, I'm venting the ship to clear it out. I'll let you know when it's clear."

"What about the guns?" asked Elias as he moved over to the Captain's chair which looked way more comfortable.

"Ready to fire." Elias leaned back with a pained moan.

"Roman, ship captured and ready to fire on my end."

"That's good to hear. We'll collide in E-minus 10 seconds. As soon as we crash…open fire." Elias felt like he should say something.

… _eight…_

Anything but nothing was coming to mind.

… _seven…_

"Hey Roman?"

… _six…_

"Yeah?"

… _five…_

"Is Blake patched in?"

… _four…_

"Yeah, I'm listening."

… _three…_

"I just wanted to say…"

… _two…_ "

…You're both alright."

… _one…_

All Elias could hear was Roman laughing before the transmission cut.

… _zero…_


	10. Breaking Point

Chapter 10: Breaking Point

It was over in a flash, Elias could see flames bursting out of the ship and then immediately going out. The entire bow section of the dreadnought broke off and floated away, if Elias looked hard enough he could see the hundreds of bodies floating out of the exposed sections. _Weak._ Elias sat there staring into the wreckage that once used to house over a thousand living souls. And he smiled.

"Elias…" came Harrows voice over the radio.

"Sir." he replied.

"The Turians have captured the Mayfair. We're currently being held captive." Elias tried to move from the seat but his chest hurt too much.

"What do they want?" he groaned.

"They want their ship back. In exchange they will give us fair treatment."

"And if I don't?" Elias already knew the answer.

"They'll come and take it." Elias tried to get up so he could leave the ship but he couldn't move. For some reason he didn't want to give up this ship, it was powerful. _With such a ship you could destroy all your enemies._ Elias reached for the Captain's controls and issued a manual override of the ships controls. He then manoeuvred the bow of the ship towards the Mayfair.

"Harrow, can you put me on loudspeaker?" there was a scuffing sound.

"Go ahead."

"Hello Turians of what's left of the 5th scout corps. I find your offer of mercy to be quite compelling, I really do. But, I have a better offer." Elias manoeuvred the ship to the Mayfair's CIC. "If you would be so kind as to look out the window…" the Turian leader looked up. "…you will see that I have full control of your ship. Including weapons." Elias began charging the main cannon, it was mostly for show as this cannon has proven able to fire without charging. "Unless you wish to be nothing more than a memory, I would surrender yourselves to the Crew of the Mayfair. If you don't…I will destroy the ship and everyone on it."

… _yes…._

Elias' finger twitched on the trigger, the urge to fire was surprisingly overwhelming. "They think you're bluffing." Elias couldn't suppress his laugh.

"Under the Earth Defence act of 2149, article 1. No human technology shall be allowed to fall in the hands of an unidentified alien race, the recommended course of action is asset destruction. No matter the cost." there was no response. "So I ask you, one more time. Surrender or face annihilation." silence befell the CIC. There was no response for a full minute before Harrow responded over the com.

"They've agreed to surrender." Elias' smirk almost encompassed his whole face.

"I'm bringing the ship to dock, ensure they are properly detained before you bring them aboard." informed Elias.

"Bring them aboard?" echoed Harrow.

"This ship has a large brig, it seems appropriate seeing as ours is now full of holes." The cruiser was significantly larger than the Mayfair to the point that Elias nearly lost it in the cruiser's shadow. Harrow and a few men came aboard first to prepare the cells.

"Bring the prisoners to the airlock for transfer." announced Harrow over the radio. There were 8 Turians overall in the airlock, the rest were dead from the fighting. They were being escorted by 4 armed guards. Elias could see the female Turian that blew him into space which caused him to remember something.

"Harrow?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Richard." there was a brief silence.

"He's aboard the Mayfair." he finally responded in a dismissive tone.

"Richard. Come in. Hello?" no response, Elias was getting distressed.

"His radio's out. His helmet took damage in the fighting so he went down to engineering to fix it." Harrow sounded so convincing.

… _LIAR!..._

"Watson. Locate Corporal Alex Richard."

"I can't find him sir." Elias clenched his fist.

"Watson…?" questioned Harrow.

"Tell me the truth Harrow!" demanded Elias.

"Listen Elias, something is no…"

"TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

… _They've killed him…_

"Elias! You need to listen to me…!"

… _SHE killed him…_

"WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME!?"

… _kill her…_

"ELIAS, YOU NEED TO CALM…!" Harrow tried to reason with Elias but it wasn't working, Elias prepped the airlock.

… _kill them all…_

"YOU LIAR!" An alarm began to sound filling the hallways with their cries.

… _he lies…_

Harrow started running to the airlock, terrified. "ELIAS!"

 _...they all lie..._

Harrow was nearly there. "Aweigh team. Get out of the airlock NOW!"

… _kill the liars…_

"We can't, the door is sealed!" replied one of the soldiers.

 _...kill them all..._

Harrow reached the airlock and looked through the window. "Kill them all." whispered Elias. Harrow could only watch in horror as the airlock was vented. A soldier grabbed desperately to the railings trying not to get sucked out. His eyes met Harrows for only a second before Elias pulled the ship away from the Mayfair tearing the airlock off. Harrow dropped to his knees trying to catch his breath. The image of the terrified soldier's eyes were under his eyelids when he tried to blink.

The Mayfair began to tear itself apart. The vacuum was pulling the interior out turning the ship into a giant blender. Shrapnel was piercing the hull causing a stronger vacuum, accelerating the destruction. Harrow tried to block out the screams he could hear over the radio but he couldn't bear to turn it off. One by one the chorus of screams cut out, Harrow closed his eyes but it made it worse. "STOP!" he screamed slamming his fist on the airlock, the pain throbbed in his hand but it didn't distract him from the horror just outside the window. "Please stop…" he whimpered.

"Mayday, mayday. This is corporal Alex Richard. The ship is tearing itself apart, I managed to drop the containment field in the engine bay but I don't know how long it will last. We need help now!" Elias wrenched himself from his seat leaving a pool of blood behind.

"Richard!?" he called, stumbling over to the window to see what was left of the Mayfair. There was practically nothing but a few pieces that resembled a ship, Elias could see the engine bay floating away.

"Elias! You gotta help us man, what happened?"

"No time to explain, hold on I'm coming to get you." Elias turned to make his way back to the commander's seat but his legs gave out. Elias couldn't get up so he started to drag himself across the floor, the pain from his wound becoming more and more excruciating with each subsequent pull. "Hold on Richard, just hold on." Elias called through gritted teeth.

"Elias, we don't have long. The field is already failing." Elias left a trail of blood behind him, all feeling in his legs had gone but he could still move his arms.

"It's okay Rich…I'm almost there."

"Elias, please…I don't want to die! I'm not ready to…" the transmission was cut.

"Richard!" there was no response. Elias kept crawling. "RICHARD!" he called again. There was nothing but silence. "Richard…" he whimpered.

"He's dead Elias…" responded Harrow in a strained tone. "…They're all…dead."

"No…" Elias responded, defiantly. "No." he repeated, trying to convince himself. Elias had his hand on the chair but he didn't have the strength to pull himself up.

"You killed them Elias." Harrow's soft and weak tone seemed to have disappeared, replaced with a subtle growl. Elias ignored Harrow and dragged himself to his knees and pulled himself up onto the chair. "Why Elias?" Elias Manoeuvred the ship above the wreckage only to see what he already knew. What used to be the engine bay was torn asunder. Even the Grizzly didn't survive. "Answer me Elias!" Elias still didn't answer, he was unable to acknowledge anything other than the wreckage before him. "ANSWER ME!" Harrow's voice was coupled with grief and anger, his strong demeanour was undermined by his failing undertones.

Elias took off his helmet, silencing Harrow. The past days had taken their toll on his mind and body. Elias' face was bruised and battered, there where cuts and gashes all over it and he had turned pale from blood loss. His eyes where the only part of him that looked alive, too alive.

Elias leaned forward with his head in his hands, the pain had been numbed to the point that he couldn't even feel his own body. "What have I done…" he whispered softly.


	11. Reinforcements

Chapter 11: Reinforcements

Harrow had made his way up to the CIC but the door was locked. "Open this door Elias!" demanded Harrow, thumping it as he did so. Elias just sat there gazing into space, unblinking.

 _…kill the rest…_

The voice in his head had become louder, it was almost impossible for Elias to drown him out. "Watson…open the door." Elias leaned back in the chair, waiting for death to come for him.

"No." responded Watson, Elias jerked his eyes open.

"No?" he echoed in a questioning manner. "Watson, I order you to open the door."

"Elias, Watson is dead." informed Harrow.

"How could he be, you can hear him too." responded Elias, trying to shift from his chair. He was so numb that it didn't feel like his own body.

"To keep AI's from being extracted from the ship, the crew is required to run a purge of all data regarding the location of earth and our colonies which is followed by the immediate deletion of our AI and subsequent VIs. It's part of the Earth Defence act of 2149, you should know you quoted it."

"He must have jumped ship." reasoned Elias, his voice was weak.

"He can't. All AIs are housed in a quantum blue box to prevent rouge AI from escaping. If he did upload himself to this ship he would have a completely new personality." Elias wanted to believe Harrow, everything he was saying made sense but something in his mind was making him doubt.

"Watson."

"Yes Sir?" he responded with his usual sarcastic tone.

"Is he telling the truth?" asked Elias. This question seemed to amuse Watson with him laughing in response.

"Of course not. It's me, I'm the only one you can trust sir. They are all liars."

… _liars…_

"Elias…who told you Richard was dead? Do you even remember?" Elias found it hard to think, his mind was cloaked in a veil of voices, one talking over the other in a mess of sound. It was maddening. "Who Elias?"

… _don't listen to him…_

Elias couldn't hold back the head ache, the more he resisted the more it burned. "Think Elias." Harrow urged on.

… _he lies, they all lie…_

"Watson…Watson lied to me…" muttered Elias. The pain was extreme, a single thought felt like torture. Elias knew something wasn't right but he couldn't stop it. "Help me." he whimpered to Harrow but he couldn't hear him.

"You don't need help sir. You're perfectly fine." Watson seemed so condescending.

"Who are you Watson?" each word was a strain on his mind.

"What sort of question is…"

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Elias tried to think, tried to remember something. He had a memory in the back of his mind. Every time he got close to remembering, the memory would move. He would see a house, a sky. The smell of lavender, no…copper…on the wind. "Home." was the only word Elias could manage. As soon as he said it his mind flooded with the memory of his nightmare. He remembered it all, the ship, the planet, Sovereign. A name he heard in his dream was on the tip of his tongue. Something he heard them say in the med bay. "Harrow…what was the name of the VI in the box!" Elias' voice was stained, as if someone was trying to pull the words back.

"It was called Monarch." responded harrow. "Why?"

Elias knew who and what Monarch was, he was surprised that he managed to hide this long. "So…." Elias tried to say the name but the words where pulled back again. "Sove…" Elias was closer but still couldn't manage it, he took a deep breath for one more try. "Sovereign!" he finally blurted out. His mind started to clear but a shadow still hung over him. "You…You're Sovereign." Elias could feel his fingers again as if his body was becoming his own once more.

"Interesting…" Watson's voiced changed into a deep, echoing rumble.

"How did I not see it? Why did I listen to you?" Elias could feel his wound, it started to burn from the pain.

"Organic minds are weak. The world around you can change the way you see, hear, smell." Elias could feel his legs again, the tingling sensation was painful but relieving. "You are my puppet, now it's time to cut your strings. Releasing control." a sharp pain began to surge through Elias' head but it subsided almost instantly. "What is this? You should be dead." argued Sovereign. Elias got up, blood rushing out of his nose.

"Not so weak huh?" asked Elias sarcastically.

"It does not matter. This ship is mine!" Elias began to laugh. "Does something amuse you human?"

"This ship has a manual override." Elias walked over to the main console and activated the manual override. "And I know something else." Elias could almost feel Sovereign sweating from fear. He had him right where he wanted him. "I know where you are."

"How would you know that human?" asked Sovereign.

"You told me. In the dream, when you tried to force your way into my head. I pushed back and I saw everything." Elias walked slowly over to the Commander's chair and sat back down with a pained huff, his wound still raw from the pain but not as fatal as he believed. "I saw what you were. What you became. What you do. And most importantly I saw you 'hibernating' near a sun but one experienced a powerful solar flare and forced you down into the planet. You have been there for hundreds of years, trapped in the earth waiting for someone to come and free you."

"Very good human, it seems you're race is more resilient to indoctrination than the others. But it matters not, I will be free. When you took the device aboard your ship it sent out a signal to my agents among the stars. They will be here soon, and I _will_ be free!" Elias pulled up the controls display.

"Not if I get there first." Sovereign began to laugh, it seemed forced and unreal as if he was only trying to toy with Elias.

"The ship's sensors say otherwise ." Elias looked at the blips on the LADAR scanner to see a whole fleet of Turian ship erupting from the nearby nebula.

"Elias, what is it?" questioned Harrow. Elias didn't answer, he was trembling at the sight. Elias!" he demanded.

"Go on…tell him." insisted Sovereign, if Sovereign had a face there would be a smile running across it.

"It's a Turian Fleet…heading this way."

"Oh my god…Shanxi! Elias, we need to warn them!" Elias was torn.

"What about "Sovereign?" Harrow banged on the door.

"What about him, he's trapped you said yourself!"

"But he'll get free, he's weak right now. We can finish him off." argued Elias.

"What about Shanxi? What about all those people? You have enough blood on your hands to fill an ocean, do you want more!?" Elias looked at his hands, the only blood on them were his. Elias couldn't decide the right course of action. Every time he wanted to head to Shanxi his mind would flood with the images of cities falling and people becoming machines, but when he tried to go after Sovereign he would be overwhelmed by guilt. In the end, there was only one course of action. "Harrow…"

"Come on Elias, let's go?" Elias hung his head.

"Harrow…I…" Harrow banged on the door.

"Don't you dare Elias!" he demanded.

"There's a few fighters in the hangar bay, I'm programing four of them to take you and the surviving crew to Shanxi…if you're lucky, you'll make it before the fleet does."

"Why are you doing this Elias?" Harrow didn't sound angry anymore, he sounded sad. His men were dead and one his best soldiers had lost his mind and now innocent people would be caught in the crossfire.

"You didn't see what I saw Harrow, you didn't see the death, the destruction. The pain." Harrow slowly pushed off the door, the weight of this day hanging on his shoulders nearly crushing him, Harrow had resigned to the fact that this was his only chance to warn Shanxi.

"Elias…you do realise that, if you do this you will become a traitor of the Alliance and charged with the direct murder of your surviving crew and the indirect murder of all who die on Shanxi?" Elias didn't answer, he just looked out the window at the fleet approaching them. Storm of emotions washed over him.

"The ships leave in five minutes." he said softly. "Goodbye sir…"

"Goodbye Elias." Harrow felt an undeniable sadness about this, he knew Elias wasn't well but the Alliance wouldn't care. As Harrow tuned to walk away Elias called out to him.

"Harrow…" Harrow stopped but didn't turn around. "…tell them...tell the universe that they're coming."

"Who?" asked Harrow.

"I remember Shoester saying "Don't fear the Reaper, for he is here to make you perfect. Well…I am afraid, you should be to."

"Elias, who is coming?" Harrow couldn't even muster a shout, instead he spoke softly in a regretful tone.

"The Reapers are coming, and when they do we need to be prepared." Harrow walked away without saying anything. Elias opened a pouch attached to his leg and pulled out a small data drive, Harrow gave this to him and the rest of the N-Squad for protection, Elias couldn't afford to make this public the Alliance Navy would be needed in the years to come. "No one will forgive me…"mumbled Elias as he crushed the drive beneath his boot. "...history will forget me."

The fighters left the ship in silence, no one knew what to say. The trip back to Shanxi would take almost a week in these ships but they had to warn Shanxi, Harrow looked forward into the nebula and hoped that the ships would survive the trip. Elias looked out over to wreckage of the Mayfair and remembered all those who he had killed, their faces, their names.

N3- Alex Richard, N4-Tabitha 'Tabby' Cartwright.

Corporals; Jack, Mike, Lugo, Arron, Alisha, Jade, Tamsin, Jahn.

Privates; Mark, Adrian, Jamil, Jamie, Harry, Rebekah, Hannah, Ninfa, Darren, Emily, Anya and John. All these lives had been ended by Elias because he was too weak to fight Sovereign. Elias felt a tear roll down his cheek, before he knew it he was crying. The tears burned his face but he could feel the weight leaving his body. He just sat there in silence as the tears fell, he didn't make a sound. These weren't tears of sadness, these were tears of anger. The sadness had left his body, the rage however continued to build until it boiled over.

Elias stood up and stormed over to the control consoles. "Are you still there Sovereign?" he asked pulling the ship around.

"Yes." his mechanical voice still echoed in Elias' soul but he forced it out with all his strength.

"You made me do terrible, terrible things. To my ship, my crew…" Elias bowed his head. "…my friends." tears were still rolling down his eyes but he couldn't feel them anymore. "You made me into something I never wanted to be and for all that, there is no mercy, no forgiveness. You lied to me Sovereign, whispered delusions into my ear. You made me kill the 'liars' but the only lair I see is you!" Elias activated the relay and entered the co-ordinates for planet Gamma 5, it wasn't fully repaired and would likely be irreparably damaged from the trip. It didn't matter. Elias could hear the Turian ships contacting him to tell him to stand down. "I will bring down a sun if I have to, you will not escape." Elias flew towards the relay, the relay began to charge the ship. "I'm coming for you Sovereign!" he yelled through teary eyes. The ship was flung through the relay before it deactivated. "I hope you're ready."

Elias came out of FTL on the outskirts of the system the relay was orbiting, the ship sustained damage during the flight with only one engine still functional. The trip to Gamma 5 which was through a nebula would take Elias almost a week at his current speed. Elias flew over the two sun system. This phenomenon was known as a binary star system, it was an uncommon occurrence and it was beautiful. The windows of the ship tinted to adjust to the new brightness and it was the first time Elias could look at a sun with his own eyes, the sight was almost enough to make him forget everything but no matter how relaxing it was Sovereign was always there at the back of his mind, pulling his focus away.

Elias arrived at the planet Gamma 5, the trip across the cluster took him longer than expected with almost two weeks passing by, Elias was only able to survive due to the supplies brought on board but they were running low. He managed to find medical supplies and patch up his wound but it still hurt to move, Elias refused to use morphine because he couldn't risk letting his guard down. When he began to orbit the planet he just stayed there for a few minutes trying to figure out how to kill Sovereign. He couldn't shoot him because he might escape from the crust, plus he wasn't certain it would even dent him. Elias couldn't plant explosives because if he set foot on the planet Sovereign would regain control of him. Elias' best bet was to use the orbiting moon as a projectile but he had no fusion torches to use. Elias slammed his fist on the console in frustration. "Is there an issue human?" Elias didn't answer. "Ignore me all you want human, it doesn't change the fact that even if you defeat me there are hundreds waiting in dark space. They'll be here soon, the cycle must continue. With or without me." Elias continued to ignore him, he was trying to find a way to kill Sovereign. "When you are dead I will take that ship as a trophy before I use it to burn you home to the ground." Sovereign seemed angry now.

 _"How do you kill a ship like this?"_ he asked himself, then it came to him. "Roman you beautiful bastard…" he called out. "If you want this ship so bad…take it." Elias pushed the ship into a nose dive towards the planet, right on top of Sovereign. As Elias looked down at the planet he felt some sort of familiarity with the situation, he shook himself out of his daydream and began hobbling to the hangar bay.

"Stop this human!" demanded Sovereign, the ship would reach the atmosphere in less than five minutes, plenty of time for Elias to reach a fighter and leave. "The cycle _must_ continue, it _will_ continue." the ship was creaming towards the planet. Gamma 5 was a small planet, smaller than the size of Pluto which made the ship nearly as big as the largest land body. There was no way anything would survive. "You have accomplished nothing human…we will find another way." Elias reached the hangar and jumped into the closest ship.

"My name is Elias, Sovereign." Elias flew the ship out the hangar and watched from a distance as the ship disappeared into the black. The planet was still doing its rotation and Elias was crashing it into the dark side of the planet. There was something undeniably familiar about this situation but Elias couldn't figure out what it was. His thoughts were being pulled back to the cave with Doctor Shoester with one question rattling in his head. _"What did you see?"_ he asked. Elias tried to remember. He looked at the suns and then down to the planet before it came flooding back.

He remembered seeing two suns before he was pulled through the black of space, past a planet only to settle above a dark world where he fell before something erupted from the darkness. Elias looked back to see the ship collide with the planet, the fireball visible from space as the ground shifted in the black.

"Oh no…" whispered Elias before the cockpit filled with a mechanical roar akin to an old earth truck horn, the roar was terrifying and resonated within him. Sovereign burst from the earth flinging ship debris and rocks out into space, the giant hulk of a creature was worse than he imagined. It was almost as large as the planet and blotted out the sun as he charged at Elias. "Shit!" Elias tried to manoeuvre the ship out of the way but Sovereign was too large, Elias rebounded off of Sovereigns hull down to orbiting moon. As he span downwards to the surface in the midst of the alarms Sovereign had only one thing to say before he headed towards the relay.

"We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom. And you failed to prevent it." Elias hit the planet and fell unconscious.

Elias woke inside the cockpit a few days later, the air on the planet was toxic for humans, Elias knew he didn't have much time, his oxygen supplies were less than 5%. Elias brought a spare canister with him but it was flung out of the cockpit on impact. He could see it lying on the ground in front of the ship, all he had to do was reach it. The cockpit was jammed preventing Elias from getting out so he used his leg to kick out the shattered window and dragged himself through it cutting open his hand and stomach as he did so. His helmet was still intact but that wouldn't matter if he didn't replace his oxygen tank, he doubted he would last that long. Elias' body was completely broken, his left leg was shattered in several places, his right arm had been severed and was only being held above the elbow by a few tendons. He had a piece of debris impaled into his chest through his left lung making it hard to breathe. Elias reached the canister and replaced it with great difficulty. "I have to keep moving…" he reasoned.

Elias dragged himself for an hour before he collapsed from the pain and exhaustion. As Elias' eyes began to close he saw a small ship land off in the distance where his ship landed, he saw a trail of blood behind him as clear as day, the fact that he was still alive was a shock to him but he knew he wouldn't leave this planet alive. Whoever was looking for him would find him easily enough so Elias propped himself up against a tree and waited for his hunter to come for him. Sovereign still spoke to Elias in the back of his mind or at least Elias could still hear him, he told Elias what he planned. Elias always knew but couldn't remember.

Sovereign initially wanted control of Richard due to his sporadic nature it would be easy to force control without people noticing but he was too far away, Merhadee was too weak and Tabitha was unconscious, the only person who was left was Elias. He told Elias about how the human mind was too complex for normal indoctrination techniques, so Sovereign tried several things to get Elias to bend to his will, he tried to force Elias in the cave but he resisted. He then tried to bribe Elias in his coma but he resisted. In the end he settled for bait, he showed Elias where he was and then he just had to wait for Elias to come get him, Sovereign also implanted instructions into his subconscious as well as suggestions that would slowly break down his will. Eventually Elias gave in to rage and fear, his most primal emotions. Elias hated Sovereign for what he had done but he couldn't help but respect him for his intelligence. An enemy unparalleled in intelligence and power Humanity was doomed to die and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them.

Elias could hear rustling in the trees beyond his sight line, he didn't know how long he had been sitting there listening to echoes of Sovereign. Out from behind the tree line came a single Turian wielding a heavy pistol. Elias found it difficult to tell the difference between Turians but this one had very distinct blue eyes that almost shone like a torch, his equipment looked more high-tech than the others he had faced. This Turian knelt beside Elias a whispered a single phrase to him. "Your species needs to learn its place." Elias couldn't help but smile before the Turian stood up and shot him through the chest.

The questions that men always asked on their last moment are always "Was it worth it?" or "Could I have done this differently?" these questions flowed through Elias's mind as the shot ripped through his chest, breaking his sternum open like it was made of glass, tearing his heart and lungs like they were soft paper and snipping his spine like it was a frayed piece of string. His body died in those moments but his mind lived on for a few precious seconds as the events of the past week flooded his mind and only one question remained until his dying breath. "What have I done?"


	12. Aftermath

Chapter 12: Aftermath

"It doesn't change the fact that he was insane Harrow." argued Ahern as he circled the desk. Harrow was sat behind it in dress uniform. Admiral Grissom was sat on the other side of the desk flicking through a dossier.

"This does all seem rather far-fetched." added Grissom switching off his Omni tool.

"I'll never get used to that." commented Ahern.

"Sir, there is a hole the size of London city in a planet, the 'temple' wasn't destroyed. It was removed off the planet. There is no debris relating to the structure at all. It's like someone just picked it up and left." Harrow sat back in his chair. "Just gone. How can you explain that?"

"We don't." Harrow huffed in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, what?" Grissom projected a video onto the desk using his Omni-tool.

"This is a military summit meeting with Primarch Tonn Adarn and Councillor Sparatus representing the Turians, Admiral Kastanie Drescher of the 2nd fleet and me in representation of Humanity. In this summit we were granted an audience with Councillor Tevos of the Asari and Councillor Aeban Jarlan of the Salarians." The video showed a lot of arguing which ended up in a fight breaking out between Admiral Drescher and Primarch Adarn it was broken up by Councillor Tevos casting a barrier around them. The video culminated in the signing of a document by all present. "This agreement you see there is a binding document detailing that certain details remain a secret. Including the fact that one out our soldiers went insane and killed prisoners, his own people and then proceeded to ram a multi-million credit ship into a habitable planet which resulted in the extinction of all life on it."

"You can't hide a planet." argued Harrow. "The council has agreed that the system in question is too dangerous for civilian travel and have place a blockade around the relay. Elias' remains have been returned to the Systems Alliance and have been cremated as per his will." Harrow looked up at Grissom.

"Did you send him home?" Grissom nodded slowly. Ahern re-joined the conversation with a throat clear.

"I know you think it's unfair that you're confined to a desk job but as the only surviving member of the Mayfair you are considered a loose end. I hear that you bribed the brass with some dirt that could make them look bad." Harrow coughed dismissively. "I have nothing but respect for you and your men sir, but this campaign has to stop. No more trying to expose this Sovereign, no more talk of 'Reapers', I will be forever grateful to you and your men with helping me accomplish that mission back on Shanxi. I know it was costly. Which is why I want to make sure you won't do anything stupid."

"You never told me what was on that drive." Harrow led dismissively. Ahern looked at Grissom who nodded.

"It contained excavation data of Prothean sites in the surrounding clusters, we found cryogenic pods but they were shut down and the occupants died inside." Harrow twiddled his thumbs looked over at Grissom.

"What happens now?" Grissom stood up.

"We live in a new age Harrow, we can explore the unexplored. Meet the unexpected. Be anyone. What happens now is no longer in anyone's control." Grissom left followed by Ahern.

"Be careful man." he added before closing the door. Harrow had been sat at his desk for hours now, he didn't actually do anything in this job but it was given to him to keep him quiet and out of the way. He was about to go home before he saw someone slide an envelope under his door. He went to check to see if anyone was there but the hallway was empty. The envelope was real paper, Harrow couldn't remember the last time he saw paper let alone held it. He returned to his desk and opened the envelope and poured the contents onto his desk. All there was, was a note and a PDA with only one dossier loaded onto it. Harrow read the note which read 'Find us when you're ready.' signed by a Jack Harper and was accompanied with a contact number below. Harrow read the dossier, it was an extensive piece which warned against alien invasion through the Charon relay. It called for a Cerberus to protect humanity. Harrow entered the contact details into his Omni-tool, it rang only once before someone picked up.

"Mister Harrow." came a male voice.

"I'm listening."


End file.
